台灣自1993年起即達世界衛生組織所定義的高齡化社會,隨著人口持續老化及社會變遷,各項指標均指出未來老人照顧問題須及早規劃因應並審慎以對。政府近年投入於老人福利措施之經費呈現逐年成長,各項服務成果的急遽成長亦反應失能老人服務的迫切需求。為強化服務輸送之連續性及服務提供之可近性,內政部依據社會福利政策綱領揭示的在地老化與社區照顧理念,藉由社區照顧理念法制化、建立服務輸送體系之可近性、引導照顧機構資源之區域平衡發展、加強社區照顧多元化及增加社區照顧預算配置等項,推動現階段老人福利政策,未來將持續深化社區照顧網絡,落實在地老化之照顧服務潮流。
Since 1993, Taiwan has become an aging society as defined by the World Health Organization. As the society keep on growing older and changing, related indexes unanimously underline the need of early and timely planning and carefulness and comprehensiveness in dealing with the problems related to eldercare. While the size of government budget on elder's welfare has been increasing year by year, the urgent needs for help of disabled elderly people have also been on the rise as reflected by the rapid growth in the number of services rendered for them in recent years. To enhance the accessibility and continuity of the service, the Ministry of the Interior is working to concretize the concepts of aging in place and community care as stipulated in the Guidelines for Social Welfare Policies. Major tasks include the legislation of regulations related to community care, the establishment of an accessible service delivery system, the balanced distribution of the care agency's resources, the diversification of community care, and the increase in the budget allotted to community care. In the future, the government will keep on strengthening the community care network and pursuing the ideal of aging in place as the world trend.