Ageing of the body starts with the born and continues until death. Ageing, not only physiologically but also physiologically, sociologically and economically comes with many problems.
As a result of the increase in life expectancy at birth and the decrease in fertility rates, the demographic structure is changing and the ratio of elderly is increasing in all over the world, especially in the developed countries. In most of the countries, the ratio of old people exceeds that of younger’s. This situation makes it necessary to handle and examine comprehensively the ageing concept and the needs of elderly.
In old times (in fact not very old, maybe only half a century ago), people live their old ages together with their children. Families were in big sizes in those times. However today, the increase in social security facilities, the increase in the number of core families as a result of independent living aspiration of young people, also increase in number of people preferring to be single (not-married), and the incline in having less number of children among couples, (the decline in fertility rates), and the changing socio-cultural structure causes ageing as an isolated period. On the other hand, as the ratio of the working women increases, the care needs of elderly increase whether they live in their homes or in care institutions. At the same time, the cost of social security services required for elderly is increasing. Ageing is not only the problem of old people, but also apply for their relatives. However, whatever the age of a human, if he/she is seen as a “load” in the society, this is a sign of a sociologic problem. All of these show us that ageing should be handled in an inter-disciplinary and multi-dimensional context, and rational and applicable solutions to ageing problems should be developed.
Keywords: Ageing, elder care, old-age problems