Bad news, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The papers reported on a case where a son slapped his own father who’d become incontinent because of a stroke in the streets, it’d caused the online community into discussions; actually, the over three thousand cases of elderly abuse happen in t hose darkened rooms.
Afterwards, the father wouldn’t press charges, because if the judge passed the protective orders, and his son couldn’t get close to him, who’s going to look after him then? The police will report this family as a high-risk family, but, if the long-term care systems keep on lacking, there’s nothing that the outside world can do to help.
The reason behind elderly abuse IS the problem of long-term care. There are, 16,000 cases of elderly abuse in Japan yearly, the first cause being the caretaker was too strained from caring for the elderly, that s/he took her/his displeasures out on the one being cared for, secondly, the caretaker of the elderly is ill too, or had lost their own basic living abilities as well, followed by the economic difficulties of the families.
this will only get more and more serious…
In Japan, over forty percent of elderly abuse were caused by the sons, the younger males wouldn’t ask for help, plus they all had bad impulse control, and, in the heated moment, a slap. So, the classical picture of how elderly abuse occur is an elderly who needed long-term, around-the-clock care, paired with a son who’d become, too strained from caring for his elderly parents.
The first thing to do, to prevent elderly abuse is to set up a working long-term care system. Like the son in the news, he could ask the government facilities which give out help in long-term care, and apply for the breathers program, to take courses in how to effectively care for elderly who had become incontinent, or get involved in family support groups. If the caretakers are already having problems of insomnia, anxiety, and/or depression or other conditions, they can ask the medical services to help out too.
The head of the legislature department, Chuan Lin said in the legislative meetings, that the new government is looking to tax citizen forty billion dollars a year, to put into the long-term care programs, and that if this wasn’t passed, it may cost up to 101 billion dollars N.T. for the long-term care insurances.
But, there are, as many as 800,000 elderly who’d needed this long-term care program, and, the forty billion dollars won’t manage to stop that hand that’s slapped the elderly parents, and felt regrettable afterwards.
And so, there you have it, the problem with the long-term care, not just here, but everywhere, because let’s face it, people ARE living longer, and longer these days, and, as old age hit, there will be, a whole lot more new problems that surfaces by the year, compared to, say??? Fifty years ago? And, because there’s NO effective system that gives the help for the primary caretaker, that, is why these tragedies are still happening, and, these sort of things will keep on happening, for a long time, because the burdens on the caretakers will get heavier still, not lighter, and, as the population is still aging……………