Old Age Care in Times of Crisis, Past & Present Symposium 8-9 April 2021 Birkbeck & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London Credit: Wellcome Collection. Alzheimer's disease, artwork. Credit: Florence Winterflood . Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) An ageing population is now a global phenomenon, with older people living longer thanks to changes in medicine, public health, and welfare services. But it is not clear that these later years are spent in better health. Now, as in the past, many older people struggle physically and/or mentally, due to a range of bio-psycho-social factors including poverty, malnutrition, isolation, exclusion, inadequate housing, illness, and poor healthcare. In both the recent and more distant past, the provision of care for older people has involved a host of actors from international agencies and NGOs, national and local governments, charities, campaigners, medical and care professionals, and,