The Plight of the Elderly!

The World Health Organization lists the following key points of elderly people:

•Around 1 in 6 people 60 years and older experienced some form of abuse in community settings during the past year (2021). 

•Rates of abuse of older people are high in institutions such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities, with 2 in 3 staff reporting that they have committed abuse in the past year.

•Rates of abuse of older people have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

•Abuse of older people can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences.

•Abuse of older people is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations.

•The global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to about 2 billion in 2050.

 

Source: https://ln.edu.hk

The abuse of older people, also known as elder abuse, is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person. This type of violence constitutes a violation of human rights and includes physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse; financial and material abuse; abandonment; neglect; and serious loss of dignity and respect.

Many countries around the world have started initiatives to protect their senior citizens by introducing laws to shield them from discrimination and neglect by family members.

In Malaysia, more than 2,000 senior citizens in the country were abandoned by their family members (between 2018 – 2022) and this is only those left in hospitals. The actual figure for all neglected seniors in the country is unknown. Among the reasons given were family problems and lack of guardians, while some children even denied knowledge of the senior citizens referred to them. Illnesses such as dementia; psychiatric conditions; socio-economic factors such as financial difficulties or stressed and overburdened caregivers might pose special challenges for families to care for the elderly.

Malaysia began the transition into an ageing society in 2020, with more than seven per cent of the country's population having reached the age of 65 and above.

The rate of ageing is expected to increase in the coming years and the share of the population aged 65 and above is projected to double to 14 per cent by 2044 and reach 20 per cent by 2056, according to the World Bank's estimate.

Singapore introduced Maintenance of Parents Act 1995, which made it legal for parents to require their children to pay for their maintenance. Every tier of society, from family to community and the state, shares the burden of taking care of the elderly. Its Retirement and Re-employment Act 1993 protects the elderly from being discriminated against when they apply for a job after retirement age.

The Malaysian Government has drafted the Senior Citizens Bill which is being examined currently by relevant stakeholders. There is a need, of course, to examine the problems faced by children in looking after their parents and also to understand parents’ inability to meet their own financial/medical needs after retirement.

References:

Expert: Mandate kids to care for parents, Arfa Yunus, Qistina Sallehuddin, New Straits Times, July 27 , 2022

The plight of elderly abandoned in hospitals: Where do we go from here, Malaysia? Bernie Yeo, Focus Malaysia, July 27, 2022

Abuse of older people, World Health Organization, June 13, 2022