〇 Geriatric care in the world
Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2022, the average life expectancy of Japanese people in 2021 is about 81 years for men and about 87 years for women.
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/life/life21/dl/life18-04.pdf
Geriatric care in the world
Geriatric care in Asia
How about Southeast Asia?
According to 2019 data, the average life expectancy for both male and female was 77.2 in Thailand, 75.4 in Vietnam and 69.8 in Cambodia.
Japanese life expectancy is by far the longest.
It is attributed to many reasons, such as improved medical care, good dietary habit and national awareness on health.
Another important aspect is when the last war was over.
Japan ended the last war in 1945.
Vietnam fought against US until 1975, and then against Cambodia until 1989.
Cambodia struggled with civil war until 1993.
Having a war makes domestic political situation unstable and impedes economic development, which stagnates awareness on medical care, diet or health.
Aging of the population never seems to progress before the nation stabilizes.
Considering various countries’ policies, countries whose the average life expectancy is 80 or less offer no nursing care services.
In those nations, most people reach the end of their lives before they need geriatric or dementia care.
The prevalence of dementia in Japan (Tsukuba University)
– 13.6% in 75 to 79
– 21.8% in 80 to 84
– 41.4 % in 85 to 90
This data shows you become more likely to develop dementia as you age.
So, what should be noted in geriatric care in Asia is as below.
1. You can’t compare Japan with Southeast Asian countries as a whole, because the average life expectancy differs a lot.
2. Needs for geriatric care is unlikely to develop in countries with lower average life expectancy.
3. The concept of geriatric care is difficult to be imagined before the number of those in need of the care reaches a certain level.
Although Vietnam doesn’t seem to need geriatric care system, increasing number of Vietnamese people are working in caregiving field in Japan via the government’s Technical Intern Training Program.
It costs 7.5 million dong (about 44 thousand yen) to live for a month in an old age home in Hanoi.
Most of the elderly live with their pension that amount to only 4 to 5 million dong, and those in younger generations support their families with low income that amount to only 6 to 7 million dong (about 35.22 to 41.09 thousand yen) every month.
Consequently, only wealthy people can reside in nursing care facilities, and 25% of the rooms is empty.
Recently, Japanese aged people began to move to Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and other countries to receive geriatric care.
In the future, more people might work in developed countries in Europe, America or Asia, and then move after retirement to a Southeast Asian country that has fine hospitality, rich nature and low price.
Geriatric care in the world
Geriatric care in the West
Let’s look at geriatric care policies in western countries.
Sweden
Known as a welfare state, Sweden actively provides nursing care services.
The country has practiced welfare for the elderly from the very early stage of its history that dates back to 1970’s.
Under deliberately designed national policies, municipalities called Sveriges kommuner play key role to offer enhanced home care services.
Home care workers have ensured position in society, which allows many aged people to live every day to the fullest in their beloved homes
Germany
Similar to Japan, Germany has been under a difficult situation due to higher proportion of the elderly that records more than 20%, along with declining birthrate.
That made the country to become the first nation in the world to develop social insurance mechanism, introducing elderly care insurance.
Germany’s long-term care system prioritizes home care services, and is said to be a role model for the Community-based Integrated Care System set out in Japan.
UK
UK offers the deferral system of state pension to complement the lower amount of the payment.
It is designed to promote every citizen to work actively to financially prepare for one’s old age.
UK is another country to conduct home-care oriented policies.
Municipalities entrust their operation to private sectors, which allows to enhance the quality of various services including home care, day care, social work, food delivery, provision of welfare equipment, transportation and renovation.
Denmark
This small country in Northern Europe is said to have very few bedridden elderly.
To deal with the higher proportion of the elderly exceeding 15%, Denmark has sophisticated its geriatric welfare system, and now is known as a role model of a nation against aging society.
Although having many nursing care facilities like Special Care Homes for the Elderly in Japan, the country has prohibited construction of new facilities, changing its policies to focus on home care services.
The home care services are available free of charge for any times.
The system prioritizes promoting self-determination of the elderly, activating their abilities.
Municipalities and hospitals have legal responsibilities to offer proper dwellings and treatment.
US
The proportion of the elderly remains at a little over 10%.
However, countermeasures against aged society has attracted attention since baby boomers began to reach their advanced age.
US doesn’t have a public system like the elderly care insurance in Japan, so nursing care facilities are used by limited people including those subscribe to private insurance.
On the other hand, there are dwellings specifically for those with lower income that offer food, physical care and housekeeping.
The government has initiated to provide senior-friendly houses, as most of the elderly prefer living in their own houses.
Common tendency as below
Although the rate of the elderly and financial situations vary, those countries have common tendency as below.
1. Home-care oriented long-term care system
Most countries has reduced nursing care homes, maintaining or enhancing to provide home care services.
They intend to make it possible for the elderly to have fulfilling lives in their beloved homes, rather than being too dependent on care facilities.
They will need to establish mechanisms to offer more elderly-friendly houses and home care services.
Their strategies shouldn’t go without any measures to keep female caregivers from suffering more burdens than male.
2. Preventative measures against frailty
If caregivers do everything, care receivers will need more support.
It is important to cut down excessive services to encourage care receivers to stay active to keep their abilities alive.
A good option is to prevent frailty.
Prevention of frailty works very well for helping care receivers stay less dependent, turning deterioration into recovery.
It will also help residents in care facilities back to their own homes.
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