Publication: The Elderly Care Response to COVID-19: A Review of International Measures to Protect the Elderly Living in Residential Facilities and Implications for Malaysia
Loading...
Published
2020-06-07
ISSN
Date
2020-06-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This note presents an international picture of measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic specifically for the elderly living residential facilities as a particularly vulnerable setting. For this purpose, the note reviews information available from selected economies and international organizations and NGOs that have introduced guidance or actionable measures. The note argues that significant and proactive efforts in the areas of prevention, control, resources, coordination, management, reporting, communication, and planning are needed to safeguard the elderly living residential facilities (long-term care homes, residential care homes, nursing homes, welfare homes, etc.) in response to the spread of COVID-19. While many measures that have been introduced internationally are of wide relevance, the note also pays specific attention to implications for Malaysia. This may include the following areas for policy consideration: (a) strengthening the linkage between the elderly care response and the overall response; (b) issuing clear guidelines and operating procedures for all residential facilities; (c) mobilizing resources for prevention and control; (d) implementing consistent measures with government support for both licensed and unlicensed residential facilities; (e) strengthening coordination between the social sector and the health sector and between residential facilities, health agencies and hospitals; and (f) building capacities.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. The Elderly Care Response to COVID-19: A Review of International Measures to Protect the Elderly Living in Residential Facilities and Implications for Malaysia. Malaysia COVID-19 Social Protection and Jobs Note;No. 2. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33861 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Long-Term Care Policies for Older Populations in New EU Member States and Croatia : Challenges and Opportunities(Washington, DC, 2010-11)The objective of this summary report is to highlight the main lessons learned from Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) countries with advanced Long Term Care (LTC) policies and the implications for LTC policymaking in new European Union (EU) member states and Croatia. The first section examines the main findings from the framework report on the financing, provision and regulation of LTC services. The next section presents comparative findings from the four case study countries, including the demographic context for LTC services, the main features of the financing, provision and regulation of LTC services and the strengths and weaknesses of current LTC systems there. The last section identifies policy directions for the four case study countries. In terms of LTC benefits, none of the case study countries have a universal entitlement system combining home, community and institutional care. Rather, LTC benefits, both cash and in-kind, are limited and largely associated with the social assistance system. The lack of data on LTC expenditures mainly stems from the undefined position of LTC between the health and social sectors, which makes it difficult to accurately collect data.Publication Why Should We Care About Care?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04-06)Without appropriate policies to address the expected rise in the care burden, population aging can reduce womens access to economic opportunities and decelerate future growth, thereby threatening the agenda of poverty reduction and shared prosperity in Europe and Central Asia. Based on the analysis of existing and newly collected quantitative and qualitative data, several key policy recommendations can be formulated for policymakers consideration: (a) improvement of the accessibility, affordability, and quality of formal childcare and eldercare options offers a way to address challenges related to excessive reliance on informal care and to capitalize on current opportunities; (b) the design of future demographic, health, and education policy reforms should take into account any potential effects on informal care providers; (c) care leave (both paid and unpaid) can shape families choices about care and market work; (d) flexible work arrangements can function as effective alternatives to unpaid leave; and (e) care-related allowances (both in-kind and cash) aim to promote quality care for children and elders and recognize the work of caregivers but may have negative repercussions on caregivers labor force outcomes. Increased recognition of the critical role of care in aging societies and careful review of the policy environment related to formal and informal care provision can help governments to harness the full potential of demographics, thereby promoting poverty reduction and shared prosperity.Publication Russian Federation : The Demographic Transition and Its Implications for Adult Learning and Long-Term Care Policies(Washington, DC, 2011-01)This report describes the demographic transition in the Russian Federation and its implications for adult learning and long-term care policies. The population of Russia is aging and declining rapidly compared to other European nations. Russia's current age structure results from decades of complex demographic trends that have created a population structure with increasingly fewer young people. Women are having fewer children and are waiting longer to have children. Russia's mortality remains higher than in other developed societies. This high mortality is due to an unusually high incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries among adult men. Two key challenges face Russia. The first challenge is whether public expenditure on pensions and health care will become unsustainable as the size of the elderly population increases. The second challenge is whether declining population sizes will reduce the size of the labor force and hence reduce economic growth.Publication COVID-19 and Climate-Smart Health Care(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-26)The emergence of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought with it a sharp focus on public health services and health systems as well as shed light on the chronic lack of capacity to manage emerging public health risks. Climate change further exacerbates this challenge. In combination with COVID-19, the climate crisis presents a clear and present risk of disrupting and overwhelming health systems, health care facilities, and the health care staff upon which these systems rely. This risk is of particular concern in those settings with already weak health systems, leadership challenges, insufficient resources, and limited capacities. Despite these concerns, the collective global effort to respond to COVID-19 and recover from it also presents important opportunities for implementing profound cross-cutting efforts within the health sector to tackle both the pandemic and the climate crisis. This report provides a framework that builds on the World Bank’s climate-smart health care approach and integrates the World Bank’s multiphase programmatic approach (MPA) into the global COVID-19 response. It is intended to guide ongoing as well as pipeline activities and investments targeted at the pandemic, with a view to enabling the health sector to leapfrog toward climate-smart universal health coverage (UHC).Publication Long-Term Care and Ageing(Washington, DC, 2010-11)As gains in basic health care increase life expectancy, more people live past the age of 65, a time when the risk of dementia and other degenerative diseases is higher and people are more likely to require long-term care (LTC) services. Whether at home or in an institution, such care is an important way to protect the lives and dignity of a country's elderly citizens. Unfortunately, the cost of LTC, especially in institutions, can be catastrophic for families. Without public social protection systems many people cannot afford the care they need or the high cost of care sends them and their families into poverty. Thus, LTC is not only a health issue, but also a fiscal issue and as the European population ages, it is crucial for states to develop comprehensive LTC systems that address this interrelated issue. The next section explores the demographic background of the Bulgarian population, which is one of the fastest aging in Europe. This is followed by s short-description of the macro-economic and fiscal framework in post-crisis Bulgaria. Next, an overview of LTC service provisions is given, followed by a section on financing of LTC services. The last section concludes by introducing some guiding principles for future policy reforms.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28)Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.