Toward an Active Aging Society: An IT Model to Engage the Aging Population

Abstract

Many countries around the world are expecting a growing number of elderly people as the society is aging over time. This shift is expected to create a large impact on our health and social security system. The cost of having an increasing proportion of elderly people is emerging as a challenge for governments, so much that our government is encouraging people to stay in the workforce longer. As a result, the aging population requires a solution that allows them to remain productive and keeping them mentally healthy. Existing solutions rely on the benefits of social networks or service networks to keep them active and improve mental health. However, these solutions fail to allow elderly people to act as a value contributor for the society. This paper proposes the design of a new model that allows elderly people to actively and collaboratively provide value to the society through an assistive platform that integrates a service network with a social network. This model combines the advantages of the social network to connect them and utilize the advantages of the service network to create opportunities for elderly people to offer their skills and knowledge to exchange benefits with other users. The proposed model can be used as a mean to engage seniors to the community, allowing them to generate value for themselves and the community while staying mentally healthy.