Singapore elderly?

[Barnsley]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... ation-ages

The number of elderly people taking their own lives reached a record high last year.

Some 129 people aged 60 and over committed suicide, despite the total number of suicides declining in the same year.

Pressures switching from young to old?

Thought the system here mitigated all this?

[Strong Eagle]

No safety net.
Increased costs of living.
Increased difficulty in finding a job on which to live.
Breakdown of family support network.
Many of the oldest don't have sufficient savings.

[PNGMK]

The govt is looking to use them as fuel for the power stations... no seriously it's an awful problem. My wife helps out at an old people's home for destitute old women that - get this - relies on ZERO govt support and has a waiting list as long as my arm.. So don't fall for the "we will look after the oldies" line... yes they do some pork barreling but the govt screwed up somewhere and mis-read the demographics and has stuffed up this current silver generation. Once they are gone (10-20 years) it will taper off. What we are seeing is the baby boomers spike up into the elderly group.

[casey5047]

The fact is, if you see some of the old people selling tissues at hawker centres or even selling their bodies down Petain Road, suicide is a logical choice.

It's coming to August and National Day. Watch out for a sepia-tinged weepy with a plinky-plonk piano soundtrack about an old man finding an old bus ticket inside a book, then having a flashback to the time that he and his wife were dating, slow dancing to a ballad playing on a jukebox, then returning to the present day and the old man's poignantly lined-face smiling, and ''We love our Pioneers'' flashing on the screen. Try not to vomit.

[Persian]

It is difficult to look after the oldies. If you have the money to send your old parents to the old folks home then its a good thing. Sadly but there's tons of old and penniless oldies around in Singapore.

[sundaymorningstaple]

You sound like the type who would be 'out of sight, out of mind'. Damn glad you are not my offspring.

[bgd]

It is difficult to look after the oldies. If you have the money to send your old parents to the old folks home then its a good thing. Sadly but there's tons of old and penniless oldies around in Singapore.

It's not that difficult. A family can employ a carer for a fraction of what it would cost outside Asia. With a little family support 'oldies' should be able to have a reasonable life here.

[sundaymorningstaple]

My wife and I are in our 70's. We still take care of my Invalid MiL with the help of a Burmese Domestic helper (which we only just got 1 year ago). My wife is going to be unable to walk in a year or so at the rate things are going. But we've never considered putting either her mother or her father (who passed away a dozen years ago) in a home (he was bedridden for 18 months before passing on but we've always looked after them (in my home). Up till a year ago, we'd not had a domestic except for 1 year when my 1st born was an infant and my wife was still singing professionally (I work offshore on 2 month hitches) so it was necessary at that point. (1.5 years only). Needless to say, that's why I'm a bit hard on those who would abandon their parents to nursing/old age homes (especially considering the horror stories that abound about how their charges are abused by the staffs.

[earthfriendly]

The more mercenary the culture, the more problematic it is for those who are economically-unproductive to survive. I saw this coming for countries like Singapore and China. Where money is everything, and sometimes even more important than one's life. Ironically, the Confucian concept of filial piety (absent in western culture, or at least not dogmatically-preached like the Chinese) is as old as the Chinese civilization. The dogmatism is not working out so well, eh? And no match for the power of the moolah. No money, no talk .

Elderly care or the lack of is a world-wide problem but for the western world like USA, it can be due to geographical factor where people are more spread out and have a preference for independent lifestyle. This can mean living far away from the family. Add to that, a lack of retirement savings and insufficient social safety net. And there is no option to hire affordable live-in help, unlike Singapore.

On the other hand, many elderly Singaporeans are not as independent as their western counterparts and some can be needy and clingy. But what works in their favor is the compactness and high density of Singapore. They do not need to maintain a car to be mobile. Within a stone's throw away, they have access to throngs of humanity........ hawker centers, markets, parks and higher possibility (a number game right, with larger pool of people?) of (true) friendships and company?

[earthfriendly]

A physiological solution for suicides ?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHY0FxzoKZE

[Wd40]

My wife and I are in our 70's. We still take care of my Invalid MiL with the help of a Burmese Domestic helper (which we only just got 1 year ago). My wife is going to be unable to walk in a year or so at the rate things are going. But we've never considered putting either her mother or her father (who passed away a dozen years ago) in a home (he was bedridden for 18 months before passing on but we've always looked after them (in my home). Up till a year ago, we'd not had a domestic except for 1 year when my 1st born was an infant and my wife was still singing professionally (I work offshore on 2 month hitches) so it was necessary at that point. (1.5 years only). Needless to say, that's why I'm a bit hard on those who would abandon their parents to nursing/old age homes (especially considering the horror stories that abound about how their charges are abused by the staffs.

I am a bit surprised by your last statement. Coming from a western country why would you think sending elderly parents to elderly care is a bad thing? I have seen in many cases parents don't get along with their children, after they are married, especially with the daughter in law. They would rather want to stay independent than stay with in the same house where the daughter in law is. This is true in my case and I have noticed increasingly among Indian families. Parents get attached to their daughter rather their son and daughter in law. My parents hate to take any favour from me or my wife. There is such animosity.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

[earthfriendly]

There is a similar law in Singapore. The regressiveness of these two countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/worl ... e-law.html

[sundaymorningstaple]

Wd40, Maybe it could be the fact that while I am from a western country, I've now passed the half way point (June 2017) I've now spent more of my life in Asia than in the US. And all of them in Asia as an adult. Perceptions change just like bias again race can change over time if you are willing to open up your heart instead of just the mind. Other than that, I'm still entitled to my own opinions be they out of step with others or not.

[bgd]

A number of my parent's friends are now going into retirement villages. They pay for it, it's voluntary and there is usually a wait list. Knowing some of them it was a bit of a surprise to me given their independence.

But it does seem quite the good life, friends, outings, numerous parties and all the health support you need. In the press they have been talking about the rise in STDs in these places. Seems they are a bunch of randy old buggers. Maybe staying with the kids isn't the best option after all.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Retirement villages are a different kettle of fish than old age homes like you see here. Heck, my dad after he discovered he was full of cancer and after the colon cancer damn near did him in he said the heck with that, I'm not going under the knife again for the softball sized tumor in his lung. Doc gave him a year and he decided it just wasn't worth it trying to keep up the house, so he sold it and moved into an assisted living facility where he had doc on 24 hr call, but otherwise is was like a retirement village in as much as he could come and go as he pleased, had his car there but just didn't have all the maintenance of crap of owning a home. Oh, he beat the odds that the doc gave him. He went almost 4 years to the day before it took him at 84.