Introduction to Special Issue of Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology on Elder-Care Issues in Southeast and East Asia

This special issue is centered on exploring elder-care in Asia with a focus on countries represented in Southeast and East Asia. Although the issues surrounding elder-care are diverse, in the Asian context, they overwhelmingly congregate around concerns dominated by the challenges facing long-term c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cross-cultural gerontology 2018-06, Vol.33 (2), p.137-142
Main Authors: Thang, Leng Leng, Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Anthropology
Brief Report
Caregiver burden
Caregiving
Disability adjusted life years
Elder care
Families & family life
Geriatrics/Gerontology
Gerontology
Home health care
Insurance
Insurance policies
Law
Long term care insurance
Long term health care
Nursing homes
Older people
Philosophy of Medicine
Respite care
Social policy
Social Sciences
Theory of Medicine/Bioethics
Welfare
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This special issue is centered on exploring elder-care in Asia with a focus on countries represented in Southeast and East Asia. Although the issues surrounding elder-care are diverse, in the Asian context, they overwhelmingly congregate around concerns dominated by the challenges facing long-term care provisions. While this alludes to inadequacy in the current long-term care polices and provisions in the region, the heightened attention also implies an anxiety towards meeting the care needs of the growing number of elders in Asian population. Compared with European states, where provisions for care have been in place for a longer period of time, care – especially long term care for elders – are considerably new on the social policy agenda for many Asian countries (Zhang and Yeung 2012; Daly 2012). Instead, it is prevalent among Asian countriesto rely on family-based care. Japan, known as a super aged society,is an exception wherelong term care provisions such as special nursing home forthe elders, home help, and respite care were set up since 1963 through the Welfare Law for the Elderly; and the national long term care insurance was also implemented by 2000 (Thang 2011). Even so, Japanese families are equally impacted by the cost and burden accompanying informal caregiving (Long and Harris 2000; Niimi 2016). Nonetheless, structural changesinthe recent decades have significantimpact onthe notions of eldercare in Asia.
ISSN:0169-3816
1573-0719
DOI:10.1007/s10823-018-9349-5