EVALUATION OF SELECTED SOCIAL SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY IN REGIONS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The paper aims to provide an evaluation of social-care services for the elderly at the level of regions by means of selected indicators in connection with the trends and development of social services from a quantitative viewpoint. The evaluation and comparison of regions of the Czech Republic using the selected indicators of social-care services for the elderly of a residential type or other types without accommodation in relation to the demographic aging were carried out in 2007 and 2014 by use of the method of multidimensional scaling. The results showed that in connection to the trends in the social-service sector in years 2007 and 2014, the amount and the capacity of selected social-care facilities were most significantly reduced in relation to the number of population aged 65+ in the Prague, Usti, and Liberec region. The development of community-based social services for the elderly brought about the highest rise in users of these services per person aged 65+ mainly in South Bohemia, Pardubice, Hradec Kralove, and Liberec region. The comparison of similarities of regions in years 2007 and 2014 using the indicators of social-care services for the elderly also showed that among the least similar regions were the Prague, South Bohemia, Usti, Plzen, and South Moravia region in 2007. In 2014, the least similar regions, according to the indicators of social-care services in comparison to other regions, were the Prague, Liberec, Plzen, and Usti region.