Community Care for Older People: A Policy Review of Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong

Abstract

The population aged 65 years and over in the world was 5.9 percent in 1980 and will increase to 7.6 percents in 2010 (World Health Organization, 2009). The population of older people in Taiwan is increasing rapidly as well. Currently the elderly population account for 10.65% of the total population in Taiwan (Ministry of the Interior in Taiwan, 2009a). The government estimates the number of older people aged over 65 will be 3.54 million, 14.8 percent of the population, by 2020; by 2050, 37 percent of the population will be over 65 years of age in Taiwan (Council for Economic Planning & Development of Executive Yuan in Taiwan, 2008). The increasing number of older people worldwide causes new problems which will become a focal point for the public sector, non-profit welfare agencies and family members.The UK has a long history and much experience in community care. Community care policy and its implementation in Taiwan mirrored that first developed in Hong Kong, but was also influenced by the community care reforms in UK. Firstly, this study reviews community care policy for older people and its implementation in Taiwan, the UK, and Hong Kong. This study will then also discuss the responsibilities of government and families for taking care of older people. In Western societies, an important element in community care is to enforce the family's responsibilities. In Taiwanese and Hong Kong societies, however, family responsibility for caring for elderly family members existed prior to the introduction of community care services.Finally, the Taiwanese government began to implement the long-term care system in 2009. The current community care policies and services do not satisfy people in need. This study suggests it could be the adequacy of adopting the assessment models and addressing the integrated working approach which had been applied by UK. A certain level of management and supervision should be established by Taiwanese government to ensure qualified community care services for people.