Abstract:

Many countries in the world are experiencing rapid demographic change with the aging population. As in the rest of the world, Turkey has also been experiencing the transformation in the structure of the population depending on the developments in the field of health. Since demographic aging affects many health, social, economic, and family-related factors, it necessitates the development and implementation of policies to meet emerging needs. This rapid change in the world and in Turkey does not leave much time for nation states to act against the consequences of this situation. In this review, it was tried to draw attention to the importance of the issue and to raise awareness by reviewing and critically evaluating health and social policies with the current changes from the past to the present in Turkey regarding the aging population. Despite the rapid increase in aging population in Turkey, the implementation of social policies for the elderly is insufficient. For this reason, there is a need to increase, improve and develop institutional care services for the elderly and to overcome the health problems there is a need to provide services by health professionals whose expertise is elderly. In addition, it should be ensured that the rapidly increasing elderly population is integrated into the society and positioned as active individuals contributing to the society to eliminate their invisibility in the private and public spheres, and that educations preventing negative opinions and behaviors in the society against elderly reach wider masses.

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