Articles

Supporting Older People With Frailty and Multiple Long-Term Conditions in Colombia
Frailty and multiple long-term conditions are becoming increasingly important as Colombia’s population ages, but effective care depends on more than treating individual diagnoses. This article examines functional assessment, primary and specialist care, medication, rehabilitation, family support, hospital transitions, rural access and the emerging role of gerontology, showing how Colombia can organize care around maintaining ability and independence rather than allowing fragmented disease management to accelerate dependency. Read more...
Dementia Care in Colombia: Diagnosis, Family Support and the Challenge of Growing Need
Dementia is becoming a more important part of Colombia’s aging and long-term care agenda as population aging increases the number of people living with cognitive impairment. This article examines diagnosis, primary and specialist care, family caregiving, legal capacity, community support, rural access, workforce development and the practical challenge of building dementia-capable pathways that connect health services with everyday support rather than leaving families to coordinate the system alone. Read more...
Integrated Health and Social Care in Colombia: Connecting Services Around Older People
Older Colombians often move between health services, family care, rehabilitation, community programs and municipal support without a single long-term care system coordinating the whole journey. This article examines what stronger integration could mean in Colombia, how responsibilities currently cross the SGSSS and territorial social provision, and how care pathways, information sharing, workforce roles, funding, governance and the developing National Care System could create more coherent support around the person. Read more...
Primary Health Care and Healthy Aging in Colombia: Preventing Decline Before Long-Term Care Becomes Necessary
Primary health care has a critical role in determining whether older Colombians maintain function, recover after illness and avoid preventable dependency. This article examines how Colombia’s Atención Primaria en Salud, health-promotion pathways and expanding Equipos Básicos de Salud can support healthy aging, while exploring the operational challenges of frailty, multimorbidity, prevention, rural access, rehabilitation, data, workforce capability and coordination with community and long-term care services. Read more...
Geriatrics and Gerontology in Colombia: Building Specialist Capacity for an Aging Population
Colombia’s demographic transition is increasing the need for expertise that understands frailty, multimorbidity, functional ability, cognition and the wider social realities of aging. This article examines the distinct roles of geriatrics and gerontology, Colombia’s newly regulated gerontology profession, specialist development, primary and community care, rural access and multidisciplinary practice, and how specialist knowledge can influence everyday services without requiring every older person to receive specialist care. Read more...
The Long-Term Care Workforce in Colombia: Skills, Professionalization and Decent Work for an Aging Society
Colombia’s growing demand for long-term care will depend on a workforce that extends far beyond hospitals and traditional health professions. This article examines the country’s emerging care workforce, the new regulation of gerontology, the relationship between professional and practical support roles, rural distribution, training, employment quality and unpaid caregiving, and why workforce development must connect skills, decent work, continuity and person-centered outcomes. Read more...
Women and the Care Economy in Colombia: Gender, Unpaid Work and the Future of Long-Term Care
Women perform a disproportionate share of Colombia’s unpaid domestic and care work, making gender inequality inseparable from the country’s long-term care challenge. This article examines how Colombia measures the care economy, why dependence on women’s unpaid labor affects employment, income and future care capacity, and how the National Care Policy could redistribute responsibility across families, communities, formal services, employers and the state while protecting choice and autonomy. Read more...
Family and Unpaid Caregiving in Colombia: The Hidden Foundation of Long-Term Care
Family and unpaid caregiving sustains much of Colombia’s long-term support, enabling older people to remain at home while absorbing substantial time, financial and employment costs within households. This article examines who provides that care, why women carry a disproportionate share, how Colombia is beginning to recognize caregiving through its National Care Policy, and what practical support, data, workforce and governance changes are needed to make family care more sustainable without diminishing older people’s autonomy. Read more...
Home-Based Care in Colombia: Supporting Aging in Place
For many older Colombians, remaining at home depends not on a single service but on whether health care, personal assistance, rehabilitation, family support and community resources can be assembled around everyday life. This article examines Colombia’s developing home-based care landscape, the new financing possibilities created by Ley 2581 de 2026, the distinction between social support and regulated health care at home, and the operational architecture needed to make aging in place safer, more equitable and sustainable. Read more...
Residential Care for Older People in Colombia: Provision, Access and Quality
Residential care in Colombia sits within a mixed system of territorial responsibility, public, private and nonprofit provision, family support and health-sector interfaces rather than a single national long-term care entitlement. This article examines who residential services are intended to support, how access and funding vary, the quality and workforce requirements established by Colombian law, and why stronger pathways, oversight and alternatives to institutional care will become increasingly important as the population ages. Read more...
Centros Vida in Colombia: Community-Based Support for Older People
Centros Vida are one of Colombia’s most established community-based mechanisms for supporting older people, combining nutrition, psychosocial support, health promotion, recreation, participation and referral within a territorial model. This article examines how the centers operate, how their legal and funding framework changed in 2026, why quality depends on far more than attendance numbers, and how Colombia can strengthen their role within healthy aging, long-term care and the developing National Care System. Read more...
The National Public Policy on Ageing and Old Age 2022–2031: What Colombia Is Trying to Achieve
Colombia’s National Public Policy on Aging and Old Age 2022–2031 reaches far beyond health services, setting a rights-based agenda for economic security, participation, protection, care, healthy aging, education and research. This article examines how its six strategic axes are intended to change everyday life for older Colombians, how national objectives depend on territorial implementation, and what stronger governance, evidence and accountability will be needed before policy ambition becomes more consistent lived experience. Read more...