Spatial accessibility of selected ambulatory social services for the elderly in the Moravian-Silesian Region

The subject of this research deals with one of the key prerequisites for providing necessary and quality social care to people who, due to old age or unfavorable health, suffer from reduced self-sufficiency and require regular assistance from another natural person. Specifically, it is the spatial accessibility of selected ambulatory social services, which are mostly used by the elderly, i.e. people over 65 years of age. The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate the gaps in the accessibility of selected ambulatory social services at the level of districts of the Moravian-Silesian Region from 2011 to 2020. The research is supplemented by an analysis of time accessibility of services according to specified time intervals for 2020. The evaluated types of ambulatory social services include day services centres and day care centers. A two-phase analysis was performed, including time series dynamics and ArcGIS network analysis. The results show the inaccessibility of the day service centres in Opava and Bruntal districts, on the contrary, the very good accessibility of this service can be seen in Ostrava-mesto district. The supply of this service has not changed significantly in the districts since 2011, while in the case of day care centres there is a slight increase in this service in terms of spatial accessibility, which had a positive effect on time accessibility.