The Limits of Aging Services in Turkey

Abstract

All societies have their perceptions of evaluating a particular social phenomenon despite their desires for a common ground to benefit from the universal human experience. This doesn`t mean need need to create a monotype or unique societal understanding by eliminating diversity. By contrast, the sharing of experiences among various societies helps them to understand each other while enjoying their differences. In Turkey, for example, there is still a kind of stereotype in benefiting from experiences of “other” societies. One might argue that the reason might lie on a long history of staying in an imperial position, leading many societies, but the historical records shows us that the Ottoman background of Turkey was based on reciprocal relationship with various local cultures and foreign societies. So the reason can be associated to the mournful effects of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the growth of the nationalist movement accusing some local cultures and foreign societies or countries as main providers of the collapse. Therefore, this work is important for examining the limits of the aging services for the elderly persons and why nursing home, for example, is still not a well adopted phenomenon in Turkey.