In the article, he describes how an average Singaporean family is taking up the undesired option of sending their aged father to a nursing home in Johor Bahru due to sky-high costs required by nursing homes in Singapore.
Ageing is a natural process of degeneration and it is unavoidable that illnesses such as Alzheimer's and dementia follow. These are special needs that must be taken care of. Elderly are also prone to falls as their muscles grow weaker, and their falls are more likely to cause injury as their bones are also more brittle. As such, most elderly require constant attention and care for their daily well-being, much like a toddler, who is unable to fend for himself.
More fortunate families that are able to afford a house nurse get the best out of both worlds of having the elderly cared for while remaining at home, however, the costs of hiring a private nurse makes it only available to those very well-off. To the average Singaporean family, such an option is not sustainable nor viable at all.
The next choice would be to hire a domestic helper. These domestic helpers who usually hail from Philippines and Indonesia, provide a good degree of care, but are not medically certified nurses, nor have they undergone training programmes to facilitate their role in taking care of an elderly person. A few are not able to deal with the constant pressure of being responsible for the needs of an elderly person and resort to elder abuse. Sometimes, victims of elder abuse are unable to voice their grievances out as they do not have the mental capacities or physical abilities to do so anymore.
Even nursing homes are not spared the ugly act of abuse. The recent incident at Nightingale Nursing Home spilled light over elder abuse by certified caretakers on a helpless, defenseless
woman, who was left naked under a ceiling fan, and later swung onto her bed. She was also slapped by a nurse when she groaned in pain. Such treatment is simply an outrage to the elder's dignity.
(Photo obtained from news.xin.msn.com)
Who is to say that the nursing homes in Johor Bahru willbe free of
such scary scandals? It is indeed a frightening thought that your kin is across the causeway in another land, and you have to travel for hours to visit them. Even more frightening is the thought of dying in a foreign land after having slogged out much of their lives in Singapore.
After reading the comments, I discovered that there are really some families who have sent their elderly parents to nursing homes in JB, not because they are unfilial, but because they do not have the financial means to pay $2000-$5000 a month, depending on their illnesses, to homes in Singapore. This is hardly surprising as rising costs of living has caused many families struggling to make ends meet, much less able to pay for exorbitant nursing home bills.
Expensive healthcare makes growing old in Singapore indeed a daunting task. No wonder there is a saying here, "You can afford to die, but you cannot afford to fall sick."
Yes, sending our elderly away to foreign lands may be a scary thought, but if the healthcare/ elder care in Singapore does not improve, it may soon be the next most logical and heartbreaking thing to do.
You may read the full article I mentioned here.
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