The world population aged 65+ will triple from 6.9% to 20% by
2050. The fact that people are living longer is a positive reflection on
improvements in health and long-term care services; at the same time, falling
birth rates are leading to a decrease in the working age populations available
to provide care. This chapter considers the health and social care challenges
that many countries are increasingly facing with an aging population and a
reduced workforce. Providing long-term care services to meet the needs of older
people is complex. As people age, they will require both health and social care
services to maintain their functioning and retain a good quality of life.
Integration of these, previously separate services will need to be achieved in
order to provide cost-effective long-term care. The World Health Organisation
recommended in 2020 that all countries should have integrated long-term care
strategies to better support their older populations. Exploration of the
rhetoric and reality of policies of integration of neighbourhood services for
older people is now needed. Such an analysis can provide evidence on the
strengths and weaknesses of different strategies, but it may also highlight the
need to temper rhetoric with reality, as well as identify challenges for the
future. Countries are at various points
in the journey to address the challenge of integration. Some, like Japan, which
has the most rapidly ageing society in the world, started to address this
challenge systematically in the 1990s. By 2017, it had introduced a national
policy for integrated long-term health and social care services for older
people at a local geographical level (neighbourhood). Other countries, such as
England, have only recently embarked on a plan for integration of health services
for older people. It has also chosen to develop services at a neighbourhood
level. We describe the evolution of the neighbourhood approach to care for
older people in both countries. We also consider historical and cultural
factors, and the future role of technology. Through international comparisons,
the reader can identify critical lessons that could inform the strategy
development in their own country. In conclusion, this chapter provides an
overview comparing the development of neighbourhood care models in two
countries with different historical, cultural and health and social care
backgrounds.
Author(s)
Details
Ala
Szczepura
Research Centre for Healthcare and Communities, Coventry
University, UK.
Harue
Masaki
Vice-President Office, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Deidre
Wild
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University, UK.
Toshio
Nomura
Research Centre for Healthcare and Communities, Coventry
University, UK.
Mark
Collinson
MC2S Consultancy Services, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK.
Gabriela
Matouskova
Hope for the Community CIC, UK.
Rosie
Kneafsey
Research Centre for Healthcare and Communities, Coventry
University, UK.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/aodhr/v4/5007
