Director’s message for International Day of Older Persons
Every first of October, Japan along with the international community celebrates “International Day of Older Persons”. This Day honours and appreciates the contributions of senior citizens to society.
Most countries in the world now face similar challenges as Japan with a large and growing older population who requires integrated health and social systems that are prepared to respond to their changing needs. The capacity to provide quality chronic care is an essential feature of health systems especially in the context of population ageing.
WHO Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre – WKC) aims to ensure that health systems everywhere enable older people to enjoy their right to health. We work with partners across the globe and in the Kansai region of Japan to identify factors that affect equitable access to health and social care services for older people. We draw on lessons from the Kansai region and the Asia Pacific Region more widely to inform global policy development and help national authorities take appropriate action to address the inequities that older people face in accessing needed care.
WKC will soon release a number of publications dedicated to identifying ways to pay for quality chronic care to ensure good health and physical functioning among adults, including older people. WKC collaborated with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and eight country research teams to carry out case studies on purchasing and payment arrangements for quality chronic care.
The research found that healthcare delivery models should be the focus of payment arrangements, and more efforts are needed to systematically identify obstacles that inhibit quality. This may enable policymakers to focus on quality and health outcomes for the population as a whole and to identify the appropriate mix of purchasing mechanisms that support service delivery reforms to achieve quality objectives for older people.
The full report and policy briefs will be available here.