Executive Summary
Background: The section outlines the three major living options for the elderly, such as family, retirement homes, and rehabilitative centers. It states the dominance of the first modes and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of every aspect.
Report: This part highlights the current plan for aged care in the UAE, presupposing increasing investment in the sphere and attraction of private companies, communities’ preferences for aged care (family), resources provided by the UAE to promote healthy aging, such as additional financing of recreational activities, and plans to support caregivers.
Recommendations: The section offers three evidence-based recommendations to enhance healthy aging. These include monitoring of families providing support to the elderly, alignment of better data collection needed for caregivers to create more effective approaches, and provision equal access to care for all aged people.
Background
The United Arab Emirates is one of the fast-evolving countries with a powerful economy and high income level peculiar to most of its population. The government focuses on improving people’s well-being by building a potent and modern healthcare sector that can meet the current population demands. However, the issues associated with the elderly in the UAE remain complex and not clearly understood because of the lack of information. Thus, analyzing the living options for this category in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah, it is possible to outline several factors. Living with the family is the first option available to aged people. It remains the most popular preference for this type of care because of the local peculiarities of culture (2). The major advantage of this option is the high level of comfort and support provided by family members. At the same time, there can be a lack of professional care in complex situations if some unusual methods are needed. Moreover, individuals might suffer from abuse, especially in low-income families (1).
Retirement homes are another possible option for the elderly in the UAE. However, they remain not very popular, and their number is limited. For instance, Sharjah Old People’s Home, the Community Center for the Elderly in Dubai are facilities of this sort that are created to support people with no families or ties to the community by providing them attention and demanded care (1; 10). The major benefit of this option is the ability to avoid problems with living and the chance of being provided with the demanded interventions and support. Thus, the number of such centers remains limited, and only a small percentage of people living in the UAE can enjoy this living option. Moreover, research shows that such centers might not be appropriately prepared to help the elderly and provide the desired care (10). For this reason, there is a need for further improvement.
Finally, rehabilitative centers are the last option available for the elderly. They exist in various communities and provide their services to this group of people. For instance, Nightingale in Dubai offers such services to this group and ensures the high quality of care suggested to all clients (2). It can be viewed as the central advantage of this proposal. Nevertheless, the number of such centers remains limited, and they can be too costly for most individuals aged 65 and more (10). In such a way, the available options are represented not equally, and there is much space for improvement.
Report
The government of the UAE correctly realizes the need for improving the existing aged care model because of its inability to meet the needs of all people living in the country. It plans significant investment in the sphere to attain improvements in several important spheres. First, a better data-collection is demanded to gather information and facts needed to reveal the current state of the problem and introduce appropriate solutions (1). Second, the UAE plans to increase the number of retirement homes and rehabilitative centers to meet the growing demand for services of this sort and ensure that all people aged 65 and more can benefit from the high-quality services provided to them.
The UAE also has its unique patterns for aged care associated with the cultural peculiarities of people living here. The community’s preference for aged care is living with family (2). Most UAE citizens view it as an appropriate option as it provides them with the chance to assist their close people in complex situations and ensure they have all things necessary for their improved well-being (2). It also results from the cultural traditions presupposing living in big families with all members supporting each other (2). For this reason, recommendations for enhancing healthy aging should consider this aspect and think about options meeting people’s demands.
To address the problem of healthy aging, the UAE government creates a specific vision supported by programs and strategies. For instance, the government is the primary investor in the country’s healthcare sector, with $16 billion of contribution to the development of the sphere (9). Along with supporting all health facilities in the state, it is also planned to devoted around 25% to develop the infrastructure needed to improve care for aged people and provide them with new supported living options (8). Healthy aging is also supported by incentives promoting healthy lifestyles and habits, such as retirement homes for the elderly where they can have appropriate health care and constant health checks.
The government also starts to devote more attention to supporting caregivers working with the elderly. First, it plans to double the number of retirement houses with the primary goal to achieve a significant improvement in the given segment and guarantee that the current needs of the population are met (5; 8). Second, the government supports home care programs affiliated with major hospitals to ensure that people 65 and older have access to all needed care and can benefit from the developed infrastructure (8). In such a way, there UAE starts to devote more attention to the issue and tries to ensure healthy aging to its population.
Evidence-Based Recommendations
Considering the information provided above, the following recommendations for improving aging support can be offered. First, the existing statistics show that living with family is the most popular option in the UAE as it ensures multiple benefits to individuals (1). However, there is also a high risk of abuse in the home setting and mistreatment. Under these conditions, it is vital to align the better monitoring of such people’s states through telehealth, mediated methods of communication, and personal visits to ensure that their conditions are satisfactory, they are provided with all things needed for their well-being, and there are no cases of inappropriate behaviors, aggression, or violence.
Second, there is a problem with unequal access to care. The bigger part of the UAE’s population is expatriates, meaning that they do not have all benefits available for other citizens (4). For people over the age of 65 representing this cohort, it is difficult to remain in the Emirates after retirement because of the absence of specific facilities, such as retirement homes, or too high price for their services (4). Under these conditions, another evidence-based recommendation presupposes eliminating this inequality by introducing specific programs for such people and opening new retirement and homes and rehabilitation facilities.
Finally, there is still a lack of information regarding the real state of this group and the problem it faces. Relevant information is fundamental for designing practical and evidence-based interventions that might help to improve the situation and attain the desired outcome (6). Under these conditions, the creation and employment of a more effective data collection tool is another recommendation for promoting healthy aging and improving the state of the given population (3). The special program can focus on gathering data by using recent reports, interviews, and information provided by hospitals (1). It will help to create the basis for new enhancements and programs vital for attaining current goals and improving the health of the nation.
Altogether, the given recommendations can be viewed as a practical and potent solution to the existing issues associated with the health of the elderly in the UAE. Eliminating the knowledge gap linked to their states and creating new facilities to meet their demands, it is possible to move forward towards the creation of a new environment characterized by the absence of such concerns and new opportunities for healthy aging available to most of the UAE population. These suggestions are justified by the relevant data and the current state of the problem in the UAE.
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