Long-term elder care languishes among the priorities of national healthcare agendas worldwide, according to new report from KPMG's Global Healthcare practice.
Needed urgently are major breakthroughs in funding, patient-centred care and programmes to engage communities and ease societal acceptance if effective and affordable seniors care is to aid, and not hinder, thriving economies.
The candid commentary on the current state of eldercare and insights for ways forward are shared in An Uncertain Age: Reimagining Long-term Care in the 21st Century, a report commissioned by the Lien Foundation, a Singapore-based philanthropic organisation and researched by KPMG.
The current conditions of long-term care which project a dim outlook, according to the report, are poor coordination between healthcare, social services and community involvement, compounded by insufficient standards and legislation and most importantly, the affected individuals' denial and inattention to his or her realistic needs for long-term care.
The ongoing debate over long-term care, the report cites, still centres on the spiralling cost of care and how governments, private sector, society and families should best bear responsibility for it, especially now with the demand for long-term care services imminent.
The way forward say the report's thought leaders, calls for enlightened solutions that address the issue across the broad spectrum of funding, patient care, workforce resources, the growing role of the community, and social issues, including the imperative to shift societal and individual notions of the elderly as positive contributors and valued citizens.
Read the full report.
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