Ageing in East Asia. Challenges and policies for the twenty-first century

摘要

This book describes how seven ethnically diverse societies cope with the universal challenges of an ageing population. The Introductory chapter sets the scene of ageing populations in China, Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. This is followed by a chapter discussing social policy from an academic perspective, which readers from a medical background may find rather theoretical. Then each subsequent chapter is devoted to describing the situation in a particular country. There are common themes running throughout all these chapters: concerns regarding adequate finances, health, and social care and participation in society. Demographic changes are common to all: declining mortality and fertility rate resulting in increasing numbers of old people, this change being more rapid in China and Taiwan. Other common themes include the declining role of the family in caring for their elders and increasing reliance on the state, the tendency for economic considerations to take precedence over social needs, increasing rich–poor divide (or urban rural disparities) and prediction of rapid increase in needs, particularly for care of older people with dementia. This is a valuable source of material regarding how different countries shape policies to cope with an ageing population, and the book should be of interest to an international readership of health and social care professionals, policy makers as well as elder care-oriented industries.