The ageing population is generating newer sentiments in relation to factors such as increasing poverty levels, gender susceptibility, existence of newer constrains in public resources, economic constraints and presence of few public institutions that provide support to the elderly. The article describes the dimensions through which the social economic changes affect the welfare of the current ageing population. The article also describes the approaches being implemented by various stakeholders in meeting the needs and requirements of the elderly population. These include development of various policies aimed at safeguarding the interests of the elderly people. The article recommends on ways to address the problem of elderly population in a bid to reduce poverty and increase development. This paper seeks to address the issues facing the elderly population the context of Asian developing countries and formulation of mechanism of to resolve them (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1007). The ageing population is increasing and there is eminent need for elderly service providers, thus, human service professionals should come up with the most articulate programs to cater for the elderly.
Elderly population service delivery
Most countries in Asia are developing and are faced with numerous constraints in handling the constantly increasing ageing population. The countries lack enough resources and tools required to put in place mechanisms that would offer equitable services to the elderly. Existence of weak public agencies, poor governance and economic constrains are the main reason behind the challenge of setting up public institutions to cater for the elderly. There are limited services in Asian countries directed towards the ageing population (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1008). A section of the elderly population in Asia enjoys social insurance benefits where the scheme caters for their critical life demands such as health services. This enables the elderly to seek medical attention at a low cost or no expenses at all. The ageing population in Asia as discussed in the article enjoys scanty health services from the concerned government health systems. Most countries in Asia lack an articulate means of providing elderly people with proper health services. The government fails to establish define health schemes aimed at covering the health needs of the elderly. A section of the elderly population however enjoys proper retirement benefits. This scheme is only present with people previously working in government institutions (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1010).
It is observed from the article that the ageing population are experience inadequate service delivery from relevant public institutions. Care and support services to ageing population in developing countries in Asia is at the minimum with most elderly people languishing in poverty and poor health. This is characterized by the high mortality rate of the elderly population. To curb the deteriorating services accorded to the Asian elderly population, an initiative dubbed “Plan for Asia” was adapted in 2007 to foresee equitable service delivery to the ageing Asian population. The initiative focuses on supporting elderly in the context of their families in order to eliminate poverty among them. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is another initiative that was launched in the Asian countries aimed at restraining growth of poverty level through providing health services to the elderly population (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1011).
How human service professionals reacts
Human service professionals in Asia are designing various programs which aim at providing suitable social, economic and health services to the ageing population to reduce their mortality rate and poverty levels. With the decline in traditional elderly family support programs, human service professionals focus on creating specific programs aimed at elderly people service provision. These professionals are instituting programs that focus on comprehensive citizenship that focus on sensitizing the governments and the society as a whole on the elderly population. The ageing population in Asia faces deprivation of socioeconomic resources as well as social injustices. Human rights groups are also designing social security systems for the elderly people. This is aimed at protecting the dignity of the elderly people in the society. These human service professional groups also focus on enhancing the capacity of the elderly population through facilitating them economically to reduce poverty levels among them. The human service groups are also putting pressure on the government to create an enabling environment to the elderly through provision of quality health services (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1019).
Conclusion and Recommendations
Provision of support services to the elderly population should be the main duty of human service professionals to the constantly raising ageing population. As observed in the article, there is eminent need to restructure the social security services in order to improve the living standards of the elderly population. This would involve implementation equitable pension plans, provision of proper and affordable health services to the elderly and favorable insurance schemes. The government and relevant human service institutions should be actively involved in establishing programs whose aim is to benefit the ageing population (Desai & Tye, 2009, p 1022).