Aging in place for elderly earthquake survivors: The impact of civil society organizations on the field and improvement strategies

Objective: This study aims to examine the aging-in-place processes of elderly earthquake survivors in Turkey and the effectiveness of civil society organizations in this process. It aims to identify the needs of earthquake survivors over 65 years of age, evaluate the effectiveness of the services provided by non-governmental organizations, and develop strategies to support the aging-in-place process. It also aims to increase the resilience of elderly individuals against disasters by contributing to disaster gerontology. Method: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional quantitative research to examine the perceptions of aging in place and NGOs of earthquake survivors over the age of 65 in Osmaniye State Hospital. The data were collected from participants selected by simple random sampling and analyzed by Mann-Whitney-U and Kruskal-Wallis-H tests according to demographic variables with IBM SPSS 27 program. Results: Analyses based on variables such as gender, educational status, marital status and age group revealed various significant differences among the participants. Gender and marital status differences were particularly noteworthy in the perceptions of independence, personal care and safety after the earthquake. Significant differences were observed between women and men, as well as between married and single individuals in these perceptions. In addition, the effectiveness of the services provided by NGOs after the earthquake also shows differences between genders and by age group. Conclusion: This study reveals that not only the physical but also the social and psychological dimensions of the experiences of older people after disasters need to be taken into consideration. It was found that women, single individuals, low-educated and elderly groups experienced disadvantages, while the interventions of NGOs were limited. This shows the need for more inclusive and sustainable post-disaster response policies.