Access to care of frail community-dwelling older adults in Belgium: a qualitative study

Abstract

Results indicate that (despite all policy measures) access to a broad spectrum of care and support services remains a challenge for older people in Belgium. The respondents' barriers concern: 'affordability' referring to a lot of Belgian older adults having limited pensions, 'accessibility' going beyond geographical accessibility but also concerning waiting lists, 'availability' referring to the lack of having someone around, 'adequacy' addressing the insufficiency of motivated staff, the absence of trust in care providers influencing 'acceptability', and 'awareness' referring to limited health literacy. The discussion develops the argument that in order to make care and support more accessible for people in order to be able to age in place, governments should take measures to overcome these access limitations (eg, by automatic entitlements) and should take into account a broad description of access. Also, a seventh barrier (a seventh A) within the results, namely 'ageism', was discovered.