As populations age across Asia and the Pacific, countries face different challenges in ensuring older people can access the support, services and opportunities they need. Through our Voices from across Asia-Pacific series, contributors from across the region are sharing perspectives from their own countries ahead of the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Population Ageing 2026.
In this article, Dr Odgerel Chinbat, a geriatrician, researcher and lecturer from Mongolia, reflects on a challenge she sees affecting many older people in her country: the lack of coordination between health and social protection systems.
Drawing on her experience working with older people, she argues that Mongolia’s greatest need is not another ageing strategy, but stronger implementation and better integration between services that already exist.
When policy exists but people still fall through the cracks
Last winter, a herder in his seventies came to our clinic. He had lived for years with untreated high blood pressure and was already showing signs of heart failure. Examining him, what struck me was not only the illness itself, but the fact that Mongolia already has policies intended to protect people like him.
The challenge is not a complete absence of strategy. It is that implementation remains uneven, and the systems meant to support older people continue to operate separately rather than together.
Mongolia’s ageing policies are already in place
Over the past decade, Mongolia has adopted a National Strategy on Population Ageing, a Strategy on Long-Term Care Services for Older Persons, a National Programme for the Development and Protection of Older Persons and, within the long-term Vision 2050 policy, commitments to build a comprehensive long-term care system.
These documents demonstrate that ageing is already recognised as an important national issue. Yet implementation gaps persist. New resolutions continue to call for evaluations, renewed action and stronger delivery.
The challenge is no longer identifying what needs to be done but ensuring that commitments translate into meaningful support for older people.
The missing link between health and social protection
The deeper problem is coordination.
Through the ‘Healthy Mongolia’ national programme and its focus on preventative care, lifestyle diseases, and public health reforms, the health sector seeks to improve early detection and health assessments for older people. At the same time, the social protection system provides caregiving allowances, housing support and transport concessions through programmes aimed at older persons.
On paper, these initiatives exist side by side. In practice, they often function independently.
A patient may be identified at a clinic as being at high risk because of hypertension, diabetes or declining mobility, yet that information may never reach a social worker who could assess their need for home-based care or social support. Likewise, social workers who regularly engage with older people may identify vulnerabilities that are never communicated back to health services.
As a result, both systems may be helping the same person, but neither sees the whole picture.
A challenge that is growing with population ageing
Mongolia’s population is ageing rapidly. Government projections show that people aged 60 and above will increase from 6.4% of the population in 2015 to 11.9% by 2030 and 21.1% by 2050.
As this demographic shift accelerates, the costs of fragmented services will become increasingly apparent. Undetected health conditions place greater pressure on social welfare systems, while inadequate social support can contribute to worsening health outcomes.
Neither challenge can be solved in isolation. Health and social protection are closely connected, and ageing policy must reflect that reality.
Building on what already exists
This is not a uniquely Mongolian challenge, but Mongolia’s solution should reflect its own context.
Countries that have made progress in coordinating services for older people did not always begin with major institutional reforms. Often, they started with practical mechanisms that enabled professionals to work together: shared information systems, coordinated referrals and clearer responsibilities.
Mongolia already has family doctors and social workers present in most soums and khoroos (local administrative sub-districts). The foundation exists. The gap lies in the systems, rules and information flows that would allow them to address people’s needs in a coordinated way.
One practical step towards integrated care
The change I would like to see is straightforward.
Health screening results collected at soum and khoroo level (local administrative units), such as blood pressure monitoring, diabetes checks, cognitive assessments and fall-risk screening, should be connected to social workers’ case records. This would make it possible to identify risks earlier and provide support more effectively.
A simple pilot approach could test what works. Existing health and social services could share information through agreed referral pathways, supported by clear safeguards for privacy and data protection.
The goal is not to create a new institution. It is to ensure that existing services work together around the needs of the individual.
Mongolia’s message for the Asia-Pacific region
If there is one message Mongolia can contribute to the regional conversation on population ageing, it is this:
Health and social protection for older people cannot operate as separate systems. They are two parts of the same reality.
Every day, doctors and social workers make decisions based on only part of the information they need. This is not because they lack commitment or expertise. It is because the systems supporting them were not designed to work together.
Before we develop the next strategy, we should ask a more urgent question: why do the systems we already have still struggle to connect?
Answering that question may do more for older people than producing another policy document. The next step is not a new strategy. It is making the existing ones work together.
About the author
Dr Odgerel Chinbat is a geriatrician, researcher and lecturer at the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, where she serves in the Department of Biochemistry. She is also Secretary of the Mongolian Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and a technical contributor to HelpAge network member Mongolian Association of Elderly People.
Her work focuses on healthy ageing, integrated care for older people, long-term care and preparing health systems for population ageing. She is actively involved in national and international research and policy initiatives aimed at improving the quality, accessibility and coordination of health and social care services for older people in Mongolia and beyond.
Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Population Ageing
The Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Population Ageing brings together governments, civil society, researchers, international organisations, private sector leaders and older people to explore how societies can respond to this transformation.
Hosted by HelpAge International, UNFPA and the China National Committee on Ageing, the conference will take place in Hangzhou, China, from 27–30 October 2026, providing a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, share innovation and learn from experiences across Asia and the Pacific.
