WS 4a - Long-term and End-of-Life Care in Aging Societies

Between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population aged 60 years or over will double from about 11% to 22%. By 2050, Europe will have about 34% of its population aged 60 years or over.
In 2000, Japan implemented Long-Term Care (LTC) policy with a new public insurance system for LTC. In 2016, Taiwan has started a second ten-year LTC Plan aiming to coordinate LTC services and develop a continuum of care system. We will share the current status of LTC policy in Japan and Taiwan and a framework of investigating the mechanism of integrated LTC service through our collaboration between the NTU and KU.
In WHO’s 2016 report, autonomy, including advanced care planning, has been repeatedly identified by older adults as a core component of their wellbeing. Taiwan’s Patient Self-Determination Act was legalized in 2016 and will take effect in 2019. Patients can make their own Advance Directive via Advanced Care Planning (ACP) by stating whether they wish to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatments.
Facing the challenge as ones of the fastest aging counties in the world, Kyoto University (KU) and National Taiwan University(NTU) are now collaborating on the first Action Initiative project approved by the WHS.
This project has 3 major parts:
1) Advanced Care Planning,
2) End of Life Care focusing on outcomes for patients and their families, and
3) Long Term Care Policy.
We will report on our progress in the first year of this project.