Healthcare Services for the Elderly Population in NCT of Delhi
摘要
In India as well as globally, the elderly population is increasing and with the increase in age comes various changes – physiological, mental, and social. With the increase in age, the elderly are often neglected, isolated, maltreated, and dependency on others increases. There has been changing family norms and elderly living alone are more vulnerable. With the Covid-19, the issues faced by the elderly have aggravated. In order to help in healthy aging of the elderly, the community needs to work together with the healthcare system. Besides the health issues, the elderly also suffer from various socioeconomic issues which indirectly affect their health. The elderly population is affected by income insecurity, loneliness as being neglected by family, less power in the decision-making. Mohalla clinics of Delhi form part of the urban health infrastructure aimed at providing healthcare facility to the people living in Delhi at the doorstep. The elderly population in Delhi can be benefited with this facility of the Mohalla. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how healthcare services are being provided for the elderly in the Mohalla clinics and how they can be improved. As evident, health in its biosocial model, needs to be understood in context of the social determinants which affect the health of the elderly. Thus, it becomes important to study the social determinants of health to make any healthcare policy sustainable. The present paper endeavors to examine the quality of care at the Mohalla clinics through the services being provided, interpersonal interaction for provisioning of services and their quality; and how the services can be improved. The chapter will dwell on the secondary data for analysis.