WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING ABOUT IT?

Whenever there is a problem about aging and elderly care, the first question is, “What is the government going to do about it?”

Whenever I am at a health and aging conference the favourite question is, “What is the government going to do about?”

My favourite question is, “Is aging only a government issue?”

The government knew that there will be over 5.5 million population over the age of 60 by 2030 and we do not have enough facilities, infra-structure, manpower and in this case mostly women power to deal with this aging wave. The government has only limited homes under both federal and states management.

The homes and centres by NGOs, associations and religious organisations and companies are also limited. The nucleus family is getting smaller. Most children of the elderly who are married and their spouses need to work to cover the cost of living and can hardly find anytime to look after their own parents.

Taking care of an elderly is no easy task, they are more than 10 times the weight of babies and far bigger than babies and harder to carry. The elderly feces are smellier than baby’s and some may have funny body odour. If they have other wounds, well that adds on to it too.

So, taking care of our own elderly parents is not easy. So, if you and I find it hard and the government also have too little resources what choices do you have? I have 3 unpleasant choices for you.

The first is one of the spouse to quit his or her job and then try to adjust to a lower income lifestyle. The second is to send the parents to care homes or centres which cost a lot and very often with suspected standard and finally, get a maid which is cheaper or get a professional home care giver, which is more expensive.

You can see that all 3 choices involve money or lowering of standard of living without having a guarantee that the parents are well taken care off or cause inconvenience to you. This is a lose-lose-lose situation. It is like between a rock and a hard place.

I know how it feels, my dad at time of writing is 87 years of age. He was cycling and playing mahjong until age 85. Then one day age caught up with him and he cannot ride his bicycle, he cannot paly is mahjong. My dad told me, “Son, I cannot play mahjong because I am too slow.” And now he is suffering from pain on right knee, so now he cannot walk and his leg muscles deteriorate like a melting snow in the spring. So he needs physiotherapy that cost a bomb if we do it everyday. So I need to discuss with my siblings on the cost. I need to work out with my wife and business partner when I can go to my hometown in Ipoh, to see my dad and help and where I can give my mom a moment of relieve from caring for my dad.

All these decisions I had to make is not based on logic, I like to think that it is based on logic but really it is based on love. If it is based on logic, I would send my dad to elderly care centres, its cheaper and my mom can take a break. I don’t have to make inconvenient choices to travel back to see my dad every week.  If it is based on logic, I will probably say, “Well he is going to die anyway, let’s give him less care and let him die faster.”

Logic, is simply just not enough for me to make any decision, it has to be love. I still remember the days when my dad will do all it takes to get what I needed. I remember I came back from school and told him dad, I need a whole coconut tree leave, and by 3 pm it was lying at the back of our home. There are many more stories like this and my dad is my hero.

Why can’t the government monitoring the standard of the homes and centres?

This is a real problem here, most homes and centres are not up to standards of most consumers but are they below the standards set by the government. The fact of the matter is most homes and centres and I use ‘most’ because it is a known fact that there are homes and centres operating without license or permit and some are still applying for it. There are many homes and centres, that I have visited and in my opinion, are well below the standard I have set in chapter two. As I am writing this book I am still researching this together with my mentor from the welfare department.

The question then is, why don’t the government act against such homes. The answer given at a conference a few years ago in 2016 was, “If we act against such homes and centres, where will the residents go to?” Again, it is like between the devil and the deep blue sea. How are we to implement a law that will affect hundreds if not thousands of lives? The authority has laws, acts and information, but to take action is also an act against humanity and compassion. No answer here. Total silence.

The fact is we cannot solve today’s problem using today’s solution.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. – Albert Einstein

That is the reason this book is written, it is to encourage people, young and old, entrepreneur and corporations to help look at today’s problem at a new level of consciousness.

This book on riding and impacting the aging waves is not just a self-help book, it is an idea, a movement to get everyone to be part of a new consciousness to solve our own problems with a renewed mind, desire and commitment.

In the next few chapters I hope take you through the understanding of the function and key performance procedures and maybe, just maybe, you can see something that I missed.