After enacting the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, and launching the Integrated Programme for Older Persons in 2015, old-age homes have begun to emerge as one of the key institutions for long-term care in India. This has intensified the need to establish a licensing and regulatory authority for old-age homes and similar institutions. Moreover, minimum standards and mechanisms for quality assurance must be put in place.

At present, the National Health Policy 2017 (MoHFW, 2017) addresses long-term care in the following manner: India needs to develop its own cost-effective and culturally appropriate approach to addressing the health care needs of older persons. It emphasises a community-centred approach where care is provided in synergy with family support, with a greater role for formal caregivers at the community level, with good continuity of care at secondary and tertiary levels. A closely related concern is the growing need for palliative care for life threatening illness and where people approach the end of life. Palliative approaches include measures to relieve pain and suffering and provide support to the patient and the family (UNESCAP, 2016). The Ayushman Bharat scheme proposes setting up 1,50,000 health and wellness centres, which in addition to primary healthcare will also provide care of older persons, and palliative healthcare services (MoHFW, 2019a).

References:

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2017). National Health Policy-2017. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Available from: https://www.nhp.gov.in/nhpfiles/national_health_policy_2017.pdf

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2019a). Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres: Accelerating towards health for all April 2018 – September 2019. Government of India. Available from: https://ab-hwc.nhp.gov.in/download/document/340b49eb2c0937e7b79ad8c1d6b975ad.pdf

UNESCAP. (2016). Long-term Care of Older Persons in India. Available from: https://www.unescap.org/resources/long-term-care-older-persons-india