The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wellness state and society: An assessment in context of aging policies

The new type of corona virus (Covid-19), which emerged in late December 2019 in China, a Far Eastern country, and could not be identified in the first place, has suddenly become a problem that attracts the attention of the whole world as a result of its rapid spread. The Covid-19 epidemic, which spread to many parts of the world in a very short time, was declared as a pandemic by WHO. Due to the fact that the measures taken with the effect of globalization were not sufficient, the Covid-19 epidemic affected the whole world in an unpredictable way. The Covid-19 epidemic not only shook the basic dynamics of societies, but also caused great destruction in societies. The effects of the Covid-19 epidemic on societies differed from society to society. With the effect of the Covid-19 epidemic, social rules have changed and many restrictions have become indispensable for our daily lives. The Covid-19 epidemic affects the health, economy, education, politics, family, religion, etc. of societies. left a lasting impact on its core institutions. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all individuals in society. However, these effects were not the same in every individual. The living standards and positions of individuals in the society are important factors in terms of being affected by the epidemic. The most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic worldwide have been the disadvantaged groups in the society. All over the world, groups such as the elderly, the chronically ill, the disabled, women, immigrants, the poor and children are in a disadvantaged position in society. These disadvantaged groups were exposed to the multifaceted effects of the epidemic. In the Covid-19 epidemic, the elderly are at the forefront of the risk group in terms of health. The Covid-19 epidemic is a disease with severe symptoms and a high risk of death for the elderly. Due to this aspect of the epidemic, the elderly have been the group most exposed to restrictions in the society. Turkey has been one of the countries where the most restrictions are applied to the elderly. Restrictions have brought many different problems for the elderly. In addition, the restrictions have led to the deepening of the elderly problems in the society during the pandemic process. In this research, we tried to examine the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on elderly individuals and the role of the social state in this process. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only deepened the existing problems of the elderly, but also created new problems targeting the elderly. For example, due to the restrictions in the pandemic, the social mobility areas of the elderly are narrowed. Such problems in the pandemic have affected individuals not only socially but also psychologically, economically and physiologically. This is an indication that the problems that arise during the pandemic process affect elderly individuals in many ways. When we look at the world scale in this study we have done, the existing social state models could not find a solution to the problems of the elderly individuals during the pandemic period, and they could not fully meet their needs. For this reason, the need for societies to revise existing social state models or develop new social state models has arisen. Keywords: Elderly, Aging, Demographic Transformation, Welfare State, Social State, Social Policies, Social Services, Covid-19, Corona Virus, Pandemic