J Korean Geriatr Soc.  2012 Mar;16(1):1-4. 10.4235/jkgs.2012.16.1.1.

Developing Geriatric Services in Taiwan

• Lin MH
• Peng LN
• Chen LK

• KMID: 1434633
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4235/jkgs.2012.16.1.1

Abstract

Taiwan is aging fast, and so are neighborhood countries in eastern Asia. The rapid demographic transition triggers the need of developing elder-friendly health care system. However, developing geriatric services in eastern Asia was not as successful as western countries due to various reasons. In Taiwan, the development of geriatric services has been highly supported by the Veteran Affairs Commission in the past few years. Outpatient and inpatient geriatric services, as well as the post-acute care services have been successfully developed. The success of developing geriatric services in Taiwan was related to the development of geriatric specialty training program, which provided well-trained geriatricians for institutes to start new services. The success of specialty training programs also extended into clinical geriatric researches, especially the health service researches that proved the clinical benefits of outpatient, inpatient, post-acute and long-term care services with active participation of geriatricians. This review summarized the development of geriatric services and clinical geriatric researches in Taiwan in recent years.

Keyword

Aging; Elderly; Geriatrics; Gerontology

MeSH Terms

Academies and Institutes
Aged
Aging
Delivery of Health Care
Far East
Geriatrics
Health Services
Humans
Inpatients
Long-Term Care
Outpatients
Population Dynamics
Residence Characteristics
Taiwan
Veterans