生态养老:养老服务中场所性的健康促进策略

老年人口占总人口比例以及提供健康服务成本的财政需求增加,正日益威胁着全球的稳定性。同时,这样的人口发展趋势也给传统的老年人健康服务供给带来挑战。本文以澳大利亚的案例为背景,论证在养老服务中运用场所性的健康促进能够给老年人创造更大的福利,缩短通常与年龄增长有关的慢性病患病率时间。提倡生态养老意味着无需像以前那样对老年人实行隔离管理,而是将他们视为整个社会生活、工作和娱乐不可缺少的一部分。文章比对了健康促进学校与养老产业等场所性的健康促进的特征,认为涵盖各种养老服务的场所是建立一个新的健康促进场所的最佳选择。场所性的健康促进策略的核心就在于为老年人的生活创造有利的环境。更广义地说,生态养老指导我们将环境与健康联系在一起,减少这一日益庞大的人口群体对环境的影响。因此,在老龄事业中应用场所性的健康促进策略有助于降低待赡养的老年人口对全球稳定性的威胁。

Ecological Aging: The Settings Approach in Aged Living and Care Accommodation

As the proportion of older people increases within populations, financial de- mands related to the cost of health service delivery threaten global stability. This population trend challenges the traditional approach to health service delivery to older populations. This article presents the Australian context as a case study to argue that the application of a health promoting settings approach to aged care may lead to improved well-being for older people to the extent that the periods of chronic morbidity often associated with aging can be compressed into an ever shorter period of time. Promoting an ecological perspective to aged care suggests that there is no need to manage older people in isolation, as is common practice, but as integral to the way society lives, works, and plays. The article maps parallels between characteristics of health promoting settings such as Health Promoting Schools and the aged living and care indus- try, arguing that the setting encompassing services for the elderly is a prime location for the es- tablishment of a new health promotion setting. Supporting life opportunities for our aged is cen- tral to such an approach. More broadly, an ecological approach orients us toward the connection between environment and health, and encourages increased attention and action within the aged living and care sector on reducing environmental impacts of this growing population. As such, the application of this approach to the aged living and care sector has the potential to reduce the threat that a dependant older population has on global sustainability.