This semester I have found an interest in long-term care. As discussed in older posts, there are many flaws in how we approach taking care of our elderly population. Because of this, I looked at comparison of the United States to the rest of the world. In the global world, America is unfortunately not a leader in taking care of our elderly population. What this means is there is plenty of opportunity to observe and learn from other countries with better spending rates and health outcomes. One country that does particularly well in treating their aging population is Switzerland, which was ranked #1 overall by Global AgeWatch in 2015 in their global index. Before beginning this discussion, I would like to point out that I am aware that just because an intervention or strategy has success in one place, does not mean it will work in another location. This is important to keep in mind when looking into other countries, but there is still value in referencing and adapting tactics to best fit our population. Switzerland provides a lesson in being proactive in dealing with their growing population of elderly and associated health and wellbeing concerns. The Swiss canton, an administrative subdivision, has placed a focus on active aging. This means they have developed programs on a local and regional level that focus on the mobility of the elderly population. These policies promote intergenerational solidarity. Switzerland does this well. In 2015, they had the highest proportion in the world of older people with “high physical functioning” at 79 percent. They also have a large, and growing population of older people suffering from dementia. Currently there are more than 110,000 citizens with dementia, that number is expected to rise to 300,000 by 2050. At the end of 2013, the Swiss took action to address this burden. They made a national dementia strategy with the goal of promoting a better understanding of dementia for specialists and their citizens (AgeWatch, 2015). This kind of policy would also be valuable in America. This is a general concept, that when applied to America’s own population could be successful. Using our own data and statistics, we should also promote understanding of dementia and how to best care for it here.
In Switzerland, one of their efforts to support their aging population is a research study called “UrbAging: planning and designing the urban space for an aging population.” This project done in 2007 and 2008 looked into their older populations perspective on the use of public spaces (AgeWatch, 2015). Geneva has worked with the World Health Organization to develop “Age-friendly cities” for their residents. The US could do similar studies. Obviously, we would have different results but shaping them to our population would be valuable. There are also groups like Pro Senectute who work to improve the living conditions for the elderly. One of their projects, “Wohnen fur Hilfe” (Housing for Help) helps match older people with unused rooms in their house with a student who needs a place to live. In return for a place to stay, the student provides help and services. There is also a program in canton Valais called “Domino” where older people can co-rent an apartment with someone who is also their age. Then in 2012, Bern instituted a “Swiss network of age-friendly cities” with the goal of making strategies to help deal with the results of an aging population (AgeWatch, 2015). Programs like this could work in the United States. We could adapt them to fit the needs of the communities they would be instituted in. Using Switzerland’s spirit of community-building, the United States could benefit from better integration of the older population into our younger society. The Swiss work to urban plan for their older population. They created TRACY, which is a policy centering around transport needs of the older population. Their urban planning focuses not only on transportation for the elderly, but also making pedestrian areas safe (AgeWatch, 2015). This kind of policy would also be beneficial in the United States. We need to study our transportation systems and pedestrian areas and see if they meet the needs of a growing, older population. The U.S. needs to learn from Switzerland’s efforts to plan ahead and deal with the effects of an aging population before they become massive issues!
Link to AgeWatch:
AgeWatch Report Card: Switzerland. (2015). Retrieved November 9, 2017, from http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/country-ageing-data/?country=Switzerland
You make great observations about the Swiss approach. Two contextual comments for your consideration, when giving thought to potentially applying their method to another society:
ReplyDelete1. to what degree does a particular society's level of homogeneity impact the acceptance and success of their policies and programs? What works in a very homogeneous society could face difficulty being accepted in a heterogeneous society.
2. to what degree does a particular society endorse a high level of taxation (no matter how beneficial the tax-supported public programs might prove to be)?
I think over this semester you've been exposed to numerous great ideas. Remember, at the end of the day, it will all boil down to funding. If you're in a leadership position and have a well-researched great idea you want to propose, be prepared for this question right from the start: "How are we going to pay for it?"
Thank you for those points! I always think about how solutions from other countries may seem to work on a surface level but when applied to the American culture there may not be good results. It is interesting how much culture does play a role in the success of interventions.
ReplyDeleteFunding is always a huge issue. As we have discussed in class a lot, there are good ideas but seldom money to do everything we want. I wish I had more solutions because I know it is a problem I will continue to face.