A new project by the Health Ministry aims to keep track of the health of Türkiye's elderly. The project will pave the way for establishing Elderly Health and Observation Centers (YAŞATEM) and is planned to be implemented next year.
It aims to reach out to the elderly and actively assist them in their daily lives, whether at hospitals where they undergo treatment or at home.
The centers will serve hospitals in every province and will be staffed by social services experts, physicians, nurses and attendants to help elderly patients. They will assist in every stage of their treatment and examination at hospitals, which will alleviate concerns of the elderly visiting the hospitals on their own.
The project will also be expanded to neighborhood clinics and small health care facilities in places far from hospitals, which will now be staffed with geriatrics nurses exclusively for the elderly citizens. Nurses will also regularly visit independently living elderly citizens in their homes once in three months and thoroughly check their health, from tests on their physical activities to memory tests. Thus, they will have the opportunity to diagnose any illnesses early without leaving their homes. Nurses will also assist in their transfer to hospitals in case of hospitalization. In collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Social Policies and local municipalities, health care crews will also help arrange economic aid for the elderly they visit if they need it.
In the first stage, the project will cover citizens aged 85 and above and will be gradually offered to younger citizens. Currently, Türkiye is home to 650,000 people above the age of 85.
In 2019, the government readied a "vision document" for the next four years to promote active aging and push reforms for better care of its senior citizens. The document or a road map prepared by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies aims to develop policies for new services and support for the elderly, from a caring economy to active aging, from improving life quality to the rights of senior citizens.