I am a University student and working as a carer in an aged care residential home in Australia and yes we do look after residents regardless of colours.

Since you would like to know this, we look after the “whites”, “yellows”, “browns”, “reds” and “blacks”…that is practically EVERYONE. Bearing in mind, Australia is a true multi-racial country and Aged Care goes beyond colour, it is a service calling for compssion, respect and love for valuable members of the society without whom we would not be where we are today.

r u yellow or white, u think Aus will take care yellow like their own?

yes, sending an elderly person to an old folks home is a bad idea but think about it. If they were to stay at home and being cared by a maid 24/7, all they get is being bored. A maid needs to clean, cook, wash and care for the rest of the house. Their time spent to look after the elderly person isnt much. There isnt quality care around. What if the elderly person has a stoke and unable to walk. are you going to ask your maids to put ur elderly parents in a wheelchair and if they would like to go to the toilet, are you going to ask your maids to carry or ‘lift’ or elderly parents to the toilet (note that the level to the toilet is raised). That is rediculous. this is like breach to occupational health and safety to the maid!

Im a little unsure if the old folks home in singapore uses a hoist to transter residents around but i do know i can trust the welfare system in an aged care home in Australia.

Before the sixties, most inhabitants tended to live within their own communities which were mainly headed by more successful and respected elders from their own races, relatives and clans. They lived in clusters and was common to have a whole cluster comprised mainly of people from the same surnames, dialects(ethnicity) and from the same villages in their countries of origins. Camaraderie was common in everyday livings.

The head of the family unit in the eighties and before was usually the oldest patriarch. Respecting the elders and capable ‘chun lao qing xian’ was the traditions of most orientals and strongly upheld. The clan spirit was as good as in India, described in this thread by the writer and most villagers were caring of the old, the young as well as those weak and poor.

In the older days, most lived simply, water was mainly from well which cost nothing and a basic shelter, even a shared one, would satisfied most. As for food, those in villages had plenty of land to produce fruits, vegetables, poultry, pigs, wild edible plants and those near the sea were able to survive by fishing, collecting shell, seaweed etc.

At the village where I was born and neighbouring villages all the way from Changi village to the East Coast near the Chinese Swimming Club, villagers were able to depend on the land they stayed and the sea for a living, some even prospered from home industries. The making of titbits, kuehs, kachang puteh, fruits, vegetable and poultry farmings, builders, tin smith, hawkers selling mee, otah, dumpling and many other homemade snacks. Every village were almost self sufficient in everyday needs.

Co-operations amongst villagers those days mean higher productivity and return which were willingly shared among the people.

Three to four generations staying under the same roof or next to each others were common and the younger generations will always had to obey the elders.

Today, with highrise and high costs of living, generation gap where the working younger one are calling the shots over the old, mostly uneducated folks who have to depend on the younger ones to survive. Some unfortunate old folks are at the mercies of their own children as there are no neighbour or relative liked the old days. How the State takes care of the weak(physical) and poor who are neglected by their offsprings, will certainly affects the wellbeings of these folks.

Panther had mentioned he has a wholesome solution for the older members of our society to live meaningfully and happily and I look forward to his unveiling of it.
If it is as good as he mentioned, then it will be a blessing for all.

patriot

Extrapolating for a single documentary, the author takes a position that
1. old folks home = bad, as drawn upon his observations during his past visits;
2. a comparison between India rural society and Singapore’s urban society, two totally different kinds of societies which I think we cannot simply lump them ogether under the umbrella of “Asian values”.

I find that the moral judgement, inherent in this article here, is uncalled for. How do we know whether our old folks being in old folks home are voluntary or not?

Is old folks necessary a depressing place as perceived by the author, who is clearly not an old folk him/herself?

What I am trying to say is that, how things are today are never due to one single reason. As in Singapore, aging is here to stay, and there are multiple dimensions to this.

Why do we have to take on such a negative light on old folks home, which is clearly an alternative, or one of the many ways for us to cope with aging? The stigmatization, serves only to add to frustration, guilt and doesnt solve anything.

The state will never provide. The kind of welfare we have in Singapore is productivity-based, ie. as long as you are employed, your employer is be responsible for your healthcare plan and CPF contributions. The new workfare scheme also follows this concept.

The problem is when you are no longer employed, you also loose your welfare benefits. The issue with such approach to welfare is that often citizens fail to take in account of emerging needs as soon as they loose any form of tangible employment.

This will require a re-alignment of the social services and grassroots organisations as they will have to contend with a huge number of elderly.

But it can be done.

Yes, the govt should start with its housing policies. An example has already been in place for years – reserving flats in each block for minority-race Singaporeans.

It is thus possible to reserve flats in each block for the elderly.

To help Singapore workers compete, I suggest we live the way the foreigners live. Send our family members who do not earn money to low cost countries like batam or china. I think this is the only way Singapore workers can compete on cost with foreign ones.

When I say feel useful, I do NOT mean work for money. I mean that they carry out activities that make them feel useful. No, I don’t think our parents, after all that they’ve been through raising up their children, etc., should they still work the last of their breaths out for money. The state should provide for them in an ingenius way.

And this way is still being worked out.

Only in Singapore, you see old folks competing with youths foe meagre jobs working at McDonalds’. If that is not a sign of the PAP-led Singapore dream gone wrong, what is?

But apparently, PAP members of parliament aren’t too good at that, and we should actually “be thankful” to have them lose it.

My mother in her eighties now suffers from total dementia and is totally incontinent. Impossible to keep her at home in a apartment, with no maid and irregular cooking.
The better nursing homes in Singapore are actually quite nice and spacious. The quiet predictable environment seems to be doing her a lot of good.