A very good program, to help the demented elderly stay active, and socialize with the outside world more! From the Newspapers, translated…
It’s no news, that the super convenience shops offered freshly made coffees, but, there’s, only this one shop, where the guests don’t complain, when the wrong orders were, made.
The C.E.O., Chen of the Catholic’s Heavenly Mother Foundation stated, that the area of Chiayi was impacted by the aging populations, the reduction of birthrate, and the migratory patterns of moving out of the county, by March of this year, the population of the elderly reached eighteen percent, the county marched into the extremely elderly society already.
In order to take care of the elderly, the foundation worked alongside with the Uni-President Group, they’d set up two “What Time is it Cafés”, where the demented elderly can intern there, sometimes, they would forget what the customers ordered, and, served the wrong drinks, but in the guidance of the store managers, most of them were able to, complete the tasks, up to date, the store had, served over 5,000 customers. In September of this year, they’d, hoped to add two more locations where demented elderly were hired as baristas.
The eighty-eight year-old grandma Tong is one of the interns. She used to be outgoing and optimistic, but after she was demented, she’d, become, quiet, and after the internship, she’d not only fallen in love with making the coffees, she could also, make suggestions to the guests, on which coffee tastes best. The eighty-five year-old Grandma Huang is also an intern, after she’d started interning, she’d gone from shy, to very outgoing, she’d not only greeted the customers as they’d entered the shop, she’d also, sung her songs with the store manager too. The social workers observed, that eight times out of ten she’d worked the registers, she’d, made the correct change for the customers, and the family felt very happy that she’s doing that.
And, the foundation found, that in the families where elderly are left to take care of the elderly, there are, 34 percent of the families with elderly who’d become demented and lost abilities to live on their own. Of these, a family, He, the sixty-five year-old wife took on her husband who’d had a stroke, with a mentally slow daughter, but as she was diagnosed with dementia last year, as the professional caretakers went into her home to do an evaluation, the caretakers were thrilled to see the roaches, the rats, crawling all over the places.
The Catholic Foundation C.E.O., Li said, nearly eighty-percent of families in Chiayi are not having enough of a family support system, and there are, many cases where the elderly are left in charge of taking care of the elderly, and, there are, thirty-percent of the elderly caretaker, taking care of two or more elderly or children who couldn’t take care of themselves, and, the average age of these elderly caretaker is at seventy-two years of age.
In order to not make the conditions worse for these families, the Catholic foundation started the local community care programs, offered assistance at home, offered a support network for the caretakers, a friendly environment, along with keeping watch over each other in the neighborhood, a total of five programs, to deliver the meals by day to the families, and the resources by the month. Of them, there was a 7-11 that got involved in the program, it’d helped made the meal deliveries on the weekends and holidays, and now, the meal program included the weekdays too, and after work, the rice, the noodles, the toilet papers, along with other basic necessities of living are also, delivered to the families in need.
And so, this, is a collective effort, that the stores, put in, to help get these demented elderly persons more socialized, and, by putting themselves out there, interacting with the customers, these elderly are able to, maintain the socialization they were in need of, and hopefully, it will, slow down the progression of their dementia by some…
Life, the Obstacle Course 