EVENTS：World Bank – Aging and Long-Term Care Case Studies Book Launch

The book launch event will be held on Feb, 27, 2023, Tokyo and online.

Book title: Silver Opportunity : Building Integrated Services for Older Adults around Primary Health Care

https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2023/02/27/phrd-uhc-funded-aging-and-long-term-care-case-studies-book-launch

Book description

We live in a rapidly aging world, in which people who are 65 years and older outnumber children under age 5. This book reveals large and growing elder care gaps in countries at all income levels and shows how they can close these gaps and leverage reforms to improve the health of seniors and create healthier, more prosperous communities. It argues that primary health care (PHC) should be the cornerstone of integrated service delivery for older people, but that PHC systems must first build their capacity to respond to older people’s health needs. Aimed at policy makers and other health and development stakeholders who want to promote healthier aging, this book compiles the latest evidence on care needs and gaps for aging populations; presents an original framework for policy action to advance PHC-centered, integrated senior care; documents the experiences of pioneering countries in delivering community-based care to older people; and provides recommendations for decision-makers. The framework presents four policy levers to improve health care for seniors—financing, innovation, regulation, and evaluation and measurement—or FIRE. The FIRE framework identifies financing strategies countries can use to adapt their health systems as populations age by, for example, strengthening PHC gatekeeping and care coordination functions. It describes how some countries have leveraged innovative care delivery models—including digital technologies—to advance the full range of acute, post-acute, and long-term care services. Country experiences show that care systems for older people work best when countries adopt a whole-of-government regulatory framework across such domains as government stewardship, financing, human resources, and infrastructure. Finally, evaluation and measurement are key to understanding older people’s care needs and ensuring that the supply of services matches demand. By acting now, countries can leverage population aging to accelerate progress toward health equity and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).