The opinions, expectations and suggestions of they, who are using the service and who are providing health care about the elderly health monitoring model which is planned to be presented by the ministry of health in the primary health care

Objective: The aim of this study is to reveal the opinions, expectations and suggestions of the elderly, who are using the service, the caregivers and the health professionals, who are providing health care, about the elderly health monitoring model which is planned to be presented by The Ministry of Health in the primary health care and to help The Ministry of Health's monitoring plan by forming a background information. Methods: In this study, focus groups with above 65 years of age people and semi- structured in-depth interviews with caregivers and healthcare providers were applied as qualitative study methods. Twenty two healthcare providers, six caregivers and thirty four elderly people were interviewed. Collected data was analyzed with content analysis method. Results: The analysis revealed four main themes as; old age, problems of the elderly, healthcare and accepting the elderly as a risk group. In the old age theme, the old age perspective of the participants, the main factors affecting the old age and healthy aging were discussed. In the problems of the elderly theme, social support and social capital, the medico-social problems of the elderly and the potential problems in the healthcare were discussed. In the healthcare theme, features of the current healthcare, the features of an ideal healthcare for the elderly and the features of the caregivers were discussed. Finally, all participants expressed their opinions about accepting the elderly as a risk group. Conclusions: The elderly are defined as a risk group by the healthcare professionals and the caregivers and consensus has emerged that the elderly should be monitored as a risk group. The healthcare professionals suggested that the service should be provided by the primary healthcare mainly in family health centers, the family doctors suggested that the service must be given by a doctor and the non-physician healthcare providers suggested that this service should be provided by a team. Finally the doctors emphasized that the education of the elderly healthcare should be introduced in the curriculum before accepting the elderly as a risk group. Keywords: Elderly, Healthcare professionals, caregivers, qualitative study, monitoring model