Review article

Health Management in Geriatric Health Care

Aleksandar Džakula
Luka Vončina
Ana Puljak
Selma Šogorić

Abstract

The share of the elderly in the overall
population of the Republic of Croatia has been continuously
growing. The already known diffi culties that western countries
have had to face, such as the insuffi cient number of health
care providers and the inadequate education in gerontology and
geriatrics, have led to the unpreparedness for special needs of
elderly patients and have become a major problem in Croatia
as well. We are also facing the disappearance of traditional
families that were engaged in the care for the elderly to a large
extent. The Programme for Defi nition, Monitoring and Studying
of Health Needs and Functional Abilities of the Elderly, which is
implemented by Centres for Gerontology of County Institutes of
Public Health, should be developed and upgraded. The planning
of geriatric health care should be suffi ciently fl exible to identify
key social trends and development processes, adjust to them
and thus be able to adequately meet the health requirements
of the elderly in the future. Cooperation of professional
associations, public sector and NGOs, as well as best practices
applied abroad, should provide a good example. The solutions
should be based on a bottom up approach, which is suffi ciently
thorough to identify regional, geographical, demographic and
economic differences and thus ensure quality and fair health
care for everybody. The prerequisites for a successful planning
of geriatric health care include the continuous monitoring of
indicators, work in the community and the proactive approach
of the public sector, primarily health care, social, economic,
pension and education systems.

Keywords

health management; health requirements; the elderly

Hrčak ID:

18866

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/18866

Publication date:

17.10.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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