Addressing the need for family-based elderly care policies in Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian population is ageing quickly. Of the country's 208 million inhabitants, 8,5% are aged 65 years or older. This percentage will reach 13.44% in 2030. Brazil's old-age dependency ratio, which is the ratio of older dependents to the working-age population, was 12.27% in 2017, compared with 6.68% in 1990. This increase creates a challenging situation with regard to elderly care. Because families are now smaller, they face more difficulty in providing care. This is a situation that needs to be addressed by government. Besides providing public services for elderly care, it is important to develop and implement public policies that effectively empower families. This work provides a review of family-based policies for elderly care from several countries that can be implemented in Brazil. There is also a brief review of elderly rights in Brazilian law and an analysis of current demographic trends in Brazil.