Table 1.
A summary of various types of community-based care services for the elderly
| Category | Type | Brief description | Researchers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assistance with activities of daily living service (AADLS) | 1. The elderly care hotline | Providing support, information, advice, or a referral for the elderly through the telephone hotline. | [20, 32–34] |
| 2. Meal-aid | Providing canteens or centralized meal delivery service. | ||
| 3. Clean-aid | Providing indoor cleaning services and specialized cleaning services for the elderly. | ||
| 4. Bath-aid | Providing the visiting bath service for the elderly to help them take a bath. | ||
| 5. Walk-aid | Providing scheduled transportation services. | ||
| 6. Daycare | Providing day care and support services to frail elders aged 60 and above who are lacking care of family members during day time. | ||
| Medical care service (MCS) | 1. Building health archives | Helping the elderly in the community to establish and maintain health archives. | [34–36] |
| 2. On-call nursing and doctor visits | Helping the elderly save time and money with 24/7 access to a doctor by phone or online video anytime, anywhere. Doctors offer a diagnosis, treatment options and prescription, if medically necessary. | ||
| 3. Rehabilitation therapy | Providing care that can help the elderly get back, keep, or improve abilities that they need for daily life. These abilities may be physical, mental, and/or cognitive. | ||
| 4. Medical lecture | Providing education on lifestyle, nutrition and disease management. | ||
| 5. First-aid | Providing emergency response to unexpected serious health events and unexpected security incidents, such as offering assistance to the elderly suffering sudden cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. | ||
| 6. Regular medical examinations | It is a common form of preventive medicine involving visits to a general practitioner by well feeling elderly on a regular basis. | ||
| 7. Medication Guide | Medication reminders and supervision. | ||
| Cultural and entertainment service (CES) | 1. Chess and mahjong | Providing the elderly with places to play chess and mahjong in the community. | [27, 33, 37–39] |
| 2. Drama, singing and dancing | Providing the elderly with places to watch the drama, sing and dance in the community. | ||
| 3. Calligraphy and painting | Providing the elderly with places to do calligraphy and painting in the community. | ||
| 4. Daily reading | Providing the elderly with places to read books daily in the community, such as the reading room. | ||
| 5. Sporting fitness | Providing the elderly with places to exercise in the community. | ||
| 6. Learning activities | Providing the elderly with places to conduct learning activities in the community. | ||
| 7. The elderly tourism | Providing tourism services for the elderly. | ||
| Psychological and legal service (PLS) | 1. Chat-aid | Providing emotional support, ideological communication, and relieve their emotional loneliness by chatting with the elderly face to face. | [22, 34, 40, 41] |
| 2. Psychological counseling | Providing mental health and adjustment services to the elderly and also consultation with them (Providers are professional counselors). | ||
| 3. Legal aid | Providing legal services in civil matters to the elderly. | ||
| 4. Daily mental care | Providing relieve mental disorders, and alleviate mental stress for the elderly to meet their daily mental needs (Providers are volunteers). | ||
| 5. Mediation | Helping the elderly to mediate with others by expert consultation. |