[Images of aging in the field of health care for the elderly. Findings and recommendations in the Sixth National Social Report on the Situation of the Elderly].

This paper is based on the Sixth National Social Report on the Situation of the Elderly, published in November 2010, that deals with the images of aging that exist in society. The aim of this paper is to describe how the commission that wrote the Sixth National Social Report on the Situation of the Elderly evaluates the role of images of aging in the field of health care and to specify the need for change that the commission identifies with respect to images of aging. The paper consists of four parts. A general introduction is followed by a discussion of some important aspects of images of aging, including a description of central assumptions and concepts of the expert commission. The main part is then the analysis of images of aging in the field of health care for the elderly. Finally, the recommendations of the expert commission in order to promote an adjustment of health care to an aging society are presented.