It was primarily taken care of by families, charities stepped in to fill the void where needed. In Australia for example we had “granny flats” where a small detached unit was put on the block so the oldies could live with the working age family unit.

This is still the case in Asia where parents don’t kick the kids out of home at 18 and their houses are designed for multi level living.

It needs to return to the family rather than the Government being ersatz parents for people who depend on them their entire lives and thus effectively never grow up.