Abstract
One important consequence of demographic ageing is the need to ensure adequate and quality care for the elderly. The aim of the article is to outline the main challenges concerning the current state of elderly care in Czechia, focusing on elderly care homes, since this form of social care is used most by the elderly population.
The capacity of elderly care homes is already insufficient, and care providers are not planning to increase the number of places. In the last decade or so, the occupancy rate of elderly care homes has been at 100% and the number of applicants who are rejected is growing each year.
There were on average 53 people aged 65+ and 11 people aged 80+ per one place in the elderly care homes, but this share is growing as is the gap between the number of beds available and the number of beds required. Model projections up to 2050 will be used to highlight what the potential consequences might be for society if elderly care homes do not increase their current capacity in the short to medium term.
If the current ratio of care home capacity to size of the population aged 65 and over is to remain the same, the number of beds needs to increase by 26% to the year 2030 and by 59% to the year 2050.