In late February 2026, Portugal took a step that matters, bringing together the rights of older adults into a single legal framework and creating a national mandate for teleassistance coverage.
On 7 May, LeTs-Care – coordinated locally by the University of Porto – takes the next step, just as important: turning that mandate into a real conversation about what a national teleassistance programme can actually look like.
Law nº 7/2026 – the Older Person’s Act (Estatuto da Pessoa Idosa) consolidates a set of protections that until now were scattered across multiple pieces of legislation, making them more visible, more enforceable, and easier to invoke by citizens, families and care organisations alike.
One provision stands out for the long-term care field. With Article 16, the expansion of teleassistance to all regions of Portugal becomes for the first time a legal mandate, not just a policy ambition.
The reaction in the media and among civil society has been mixed. Some commentators have welcomed the law’s intent while questioning whether its principles can translate into concrete change in a system that is, by most accounts, underfunded, understaffed and marked by deep territorial inequalities.
This gap between the abstract world of legal principles and the real world of service delivery, is where the LeTs-Care project sees both a challenge and an opportunity.
Teleassistance is not a monolithic concept and can take very different shapes.
LeTs-Care has been systematically studying how long-term care – including teleassistance – operates across different European countries and contexts, mapping what works, what doesn’t, and why context matters. This is where the project adds value to the debate, by grounding it into the practices.
On 7 May 2026, from 11:00 to 13:00 CET, LeTs-Care is hosting the national webinar “Distance Care, Close Support: Challenges and Opportunities for Telecare in Portugal” bringing together in a structured national forum, operators who are actually delivering teleassistance services on the ground: two non-profit organisations, one commercial provider and two municipalities, one rural, one urban.
Their testimonies will be followed by a moderated discussion where LeTs-Care researchers can share their work and ask critical questions to stakeholders in order to help them analyse alternatives, funding models, organizational aspects, and more.
The event has already attracted close to 160 registered participants from across the country, spanning long-term care providers, national and local policymakers, technology developers, commercial operators, and civil society organisations working on ageing. It is a number that surprised the organisers themselves and a sign of how much appetite there is for this conversation.
Portugal’s new law has opened a window.
What comes next is to make sure policy proposals don’t end up as pieces of empty rethoric and rather translate into significant steps forward in pursuit of a system of long-term care that secures adequate, high quality, equitable and sustainable responses to older adults’ needs.
That will depend on the quality of the policy choices made now.
LeTs-Care’s aim is to help ensure those choices are informed, evidence-based, and grounded in the experiences of those already doing this work.
