🇹🇼 Taiwan Ageing, Long-Term Care & Community Support Knowledge Hub

Taiwan is entering a new phase of population ageing as longer lives, very low fertility, changing family structures and growing care needs increase pressure on traditional approaches to supporting older people. Families continue to play a major role in care, alongside migrant care workers and an expanding formal long-term care system. Taiwan’s development of Long-Term Care 2.0 has increased the importance of home and community-based services, day care, caregiver support, dementia services, rehabilitation, integrated health and long-term care and ageing in place. The first collection within this Knowledge Hub explores Taiwan Ageing, Long-Term Care & Community Support, with additional specialist collections being introduced as the library expands.

Taiwan’s long-term care system combines national policy and financing with local implementation involving municipal and county governments, healthcare organisations, long-term care providers, community services, migrant care workers, families and neighbourhood networks. The development of a more accessible community-based care infrastructure reflects an important transition from predominantly family responsibility towards a broader mixed system of formal and informal support, while significant questions remain around workforce capacity, affordability, integration, quality and sustainability.

This Knowledge Hub has been created to examine Taiwan’s evolving response to population ageing, long-term care, home and community support, family caregiving, migrant care workers, dementia, disability support, rehabilitation, residential care, ageing in place, workforce development, quality assurance, safeguarding, integrated care, rural and Indigenous communities, digital technology, assistive technology, artificial intelligence and system reform. It forms part of the interconnected international knowledge library across Impact Guru and Impact Insights Hub, supporting comparison between care systems while recognising that policies and service models must be understood within their own national, local and cultural contexts.

As the collection develops, articles will explore Taiwan’s demographic transition, Long-Term Care 2.0, financing and sustainability, community-based care, family caregiving, home care, day services, residential provision, dementia, disability support, hospital-to-home transitions, health and long-term care integration, workforce pressures, migrant care workers, rural access, Indigenous communities, person-centred care, quality and accountability, safeguarding, preventive care, rehabilitation, social connection, digital innovation, smart ageing, artificial intelligence, system resilience and the future of social care.

A particularly important feature of Taiwan’s experience is the attempt to expand formal long-term care while retaining support within homes and communities. The effectiveness of this transition depends not simply on increasing the number of services available, but on whether people can access reliable support, whether different parts of the system work together, whether sufficient workers are available and whether investment translates into greater independence, continuity, safety and quality of life.

Taiwan also provides valuable international learning because demographic change, workforce pressures, family caregiving and technological development are occurring simultaneously. Its experience can provide insights into expanding community care, supporting family caregivers, integrating migrant workers within long-term care, connecting health and social support, developing age-friendly communities and using technology to strengthen independence without assuming that approaches developed in Taiwan can be transferred unchanged to other countries.

International comparison therefore requires attention to Taiwan’s particular financing arrangements, government structures, labour market, family expectations, healthcare system, geography and technological infrastructure. The purpose of this Knowledge Hub is not to present Taiwan as a model for direct replication, but to examine what its reforms reveal about the practical challenge of developing accessible, sustainable and accountable long-term care during rapid population ageing.

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