Background WHO Southeast Asian Region (WHO SEARO) is home to 1.94 billion people accounting for one-fourth of the global population. Objective The primary objective of this scoping review is to describe the various policy interventions implemented in countries of the WHO SEARO to address the consequences of ageing. Design The Arksey and O’Malley framework for scoping review was used to explore existing policy interventions on aged care. Setting WHO SEARO. Methods Ten articles and 33 grey literature discussing the various aged care interventions adopted by WHO SEARO countries were identified through a comprehensive search performed across five databases, PubMed (NCBI), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science (Clarivate) and Scopus (Elsevier) and Google Scholar. Results The review indicates that healthcare, long-term care and rehabilitation, maintenance and welfare, and old age social security are the critical domains of existing policy intervention. The grey literature, including policies, acts, legislations, agendas and plans of action adopted by WHO SEARO countries, concludes that existing interventions are spread across the differential aspects of ageing and aged care. The notable delimitations of the given policy interventions are ambiguity regarding the monitoring of the programmes, lack of benchmark standards for evaluation of progress, inadequate attention to rural poverty and lack of decentralisation. Conclusion WHO SEARO countries can respond better to ageing by reinforcing areas such as caregiver support and allowances, public financing in older care, old age health insurance, public-private partnership in mobile and institutional caring and social security systems including old age and disability pension.

The convergence of youth migration and the nuclearization of families has altered conventional living arrangements in India, indicating a sharp rise in the number of families in which older adults live alone due to the outmigration of their adult children. This study aims to explore the perceptions of left-behind older adults regarding long-distance care practices by their adult children and to describe the practical and functional care deficits that lead to vulnerability and unmet mental health care in migrant households. Twenty older adults above 65 years of age living alone or with a spouse for at least one year due to the out-migration of their adult children were selected purposively. The analysis revealed that distance from migrant children makes older adults feel anxious, miss their family togetherness, and experience increased loneliness and care gaps in later years, contributing to a multifaceted causality of vulnerability while aging alone. Narratives of distance care are often shaped by the bidirectional flow of care across generations through virtual and in-person means, where emotional and functional deprivations continue to challenge the quality of informal distant care among left-behind older adults. Mental health promotion among community-dwelling older adults is crucial for sustaining their functional capacity, thereby delaying psychological morbidities during aging.

Background: Access to healthcare among the aging population in the WHO Southeast Asia (WHO-SEARO) encounters several challenges, resulting in unmet healthcare needs in this region. These challenges are associated with adverse health outcomes, including the growing prevalence of multimorbidity (also referred to as multiple long-term conditions), and heightened economic and systemic burdens on healthcare infrastructures. Method: This study aimed to identify factors influencing healthcare access among older individuals in the WHO-SEARO, adopting a Scoping review methodology based on the Arksey and O’Malley Framework (2005) and the Levesque conceptual framework for access to healthcare. Results: Multiple databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL, were screened, resulting in the identification and analysis of 39 articles. The findings highlight significant progress in healthcare access among older adults in WHO-SEARO. However, inadequate health information, heightened economic dependency and treatment cost, limited accessibility and social support, often impede optimal healthcare utilization among older adults. Conclusion: Sustained and improved healthcare access for older adults demands prioritising proactive policies, targeted aged care incentives and, decentralized programs targeting older adults across different socio-demographic milieus.

Background: Decline of intergenerational co‐residence, risk of functional and emotional deprivations in old age, and the diminishing capacity of families to care in‐person for their older parents have intensified the demand for formal care provisions among left‐behind older adults in migrant households of Kerala. While several attempts have been made to quantify the accessibility and utilisation of geriatric care, there is a dearth of evidence on the realities of alternative care in Kerala. The present study aims to explore the perception of older adults (65+) and service providers (government and non‐governmental) on the systemic enablers and barriers of alternative care in migrant households of Kerala. Materials and Methods: A qualitative approach using IDIs were employed among 20 left‐behind older adults (65+) and 8 service providers across three districts of Kerala (Pathanamthitta, Thrissur and Kannur), using purpose sampling, and thematic analysis was followed using a deductive approach. Results: Analysis using the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care revealed that the high cost of care at a micro level limits access and utilisation, while the inactivity of day care homes and their failure to upgrade as resource centres challenge the alternative care at a meso level of operation. The absence of need assessments, top‐down implementation, inappropriate fund allocation, lack of measures to sustain the programme and rigid eligibility norms for inclusion pose challenges in the care avenues, while pain and palliative care community‐based associations and doorstep delivery of essential services facilitate seamless delivery of alternative care. Conclusion: Alternative care efforts should integrate regional, state and central levels of planning, concrete implementation guidelines, participation of older adults in planning and implementation, and efforts to upgrade day care homes into regional resource centres, along with systematic monitoring and evaluation and multi‐stakeholder governance to realise alternative care for older adults. Patient and/or Public Contribution: Informal discussions with community‐dwelling older adults and service providers helped in refining research questions and in‐depth interview guides to explore their lived experiences. Participants shared insights on their care experiences, which informed data collection and interpretation. Research findings were reviewed within a subgroup of older adults and service providers to ensure contextual accuracy in reporting the practical enablers and barriers of alternative care as perceived by the stakeholders.