From the Front Page Sections, translated…
The Examination Offices of the Government had demanded that the Department of Health and Sanitations make the adjustments from the lacking of prevention of dementia and caretaking. The truth is, Long-Term Care 2.0 has the same problems, the Department of Health and Sanitations should examine the facts completely, and, adjust the priorities, otherwise, it would be most difficult, to set up a network for the long-term caretaking local community, the tragedies from long-term care will surely, continue to happen, and the government won’t be able to dodge the responsibilities.
In the past decade, more and more had been diagnosed with dementia, there were even more and more tragedies, the reason being: Taiwan lacked the dementia caretaking community network, the government didn’t plan the training of the personnel of the long-term care programs, they’d not set up a supportive and friendly environment, not trained the families to deal with the situations, nor is there a platform, which discussion boards are set up, to talk about the various cases of Alzheimer’s patients.
For instance, for the elderly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the average age after diagnoses is eight to ten years, even up to twenty, and, there’s no way that the families can fully comprehend the progressions, and the knowledge, from learning about the illness, caretaking techniques, how to communicate, how to have a nonmedicinal way of life, oral hygiene, nutrition, swallowing practices, exercises, care of the body, moving the elderly around, methods of cleaning, it’s a very vast area, and now, the medical departments, and the nursing departments in Taiwan lacked the complete training set.
Awhile ago, something weird happened, the families lifted the demented elderly to the community center, and the elderly had, wondered onto the roads, walked into the traffic, thankfully, the police officers escorted the individual back to the safety of home; and it clearly showed the LACKING in the personnel in the care center, for this elderly to wander out onto the streets, which showed the lacking of quality of the caretakers, this problem is caused by not training the personnel well, with the aging of the population going so quickly right now.
Personnel is the most important thing that makes the system run smoothly, without the professional personnel, there’s, NO quality of service to speak of, the Department of Welfare and Sanitations should prioritize in training the personnel, otherwise, in a couple of years, the problem will still be here, and, how many MORE tragedies will impact the families with the demented elderly, the Department of Health and Sanitations should really empathize, when they come up with a plan.
So, this, is a HUGE problem, because the population is aging too fast, faster than those trained (certified???) workers are coming out of the schools, that, is why there’s, this lacking, and, even if there are people being trained AND certified to do this work right now, who’s to say, that these individuals won’t get burned out, doing what they do? So, we will, need a better plan, but, there isn’t one, because we’re, currently, living, IN this dilemma right now!