Media outlets on Dec. 6 reported that the Ministry of Labor is planning to relax restrictions on hiring foreign caregivers. Families with members over the age of 85 who suffer from certain disabilities that impair their ability to bathe, dress or use the toilet on their own are to be able to apply for the services.
The new policy is likely to be implemented near the Lunar New Year in February. It is estimated that at least 35,000 elderly people will be able to apply for the services.
The ministry should be praised for offering such a positive response to public calls.
Late last year, during my term as a member of the Control Yuan, I received a petition from a citizen whose 88-year-old father could hardly walk or bathe because his legs were too weak. His father was reluctant to move to a nursing home, so he hired a local caregiver instead. However, after the caregiver quit he was unable to find a replacement for a while. He wanted to apply for the services of a foreign caregiver, but his father did not meet any of the disabilities addressed in the Barthel index. Whenever the family had to leave his father alone at home because they had to go to work, they were always worried.
Taiwan formally became an aging society in 1993. By the end of 2012, the number of elderly people had reached 2.6 million, accounting for 11.15 percent of the total population. The aging population is highlighting the importance of health and social care provided to the elderly, so I asked my colleagues, Control Yuan members Yang Mei-ling (楊美鈴) and Lee Ping-nan (李炳南), to look into the problem.
Their study showed that since 2003, 98,918 people had received a caretaker certification, but after training only 22 percent of them went to work in the profession.
There are only 7,504 people currently working as domestic caregivers, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates that there could be as many as 328,311 disabled people living in local communities by 2017. This is enough to show that the number of caregivers that have been trained since such training was first introduced in Taiwan is far from sufficient.
We followed up on the study by contacting the two ministries to ask them to review the rules to apply for permission to employ a foreign caregiver. We also asked them to take the initiative to adjust the labor conditions for all caregivers in order to be able to increase the number of caregivers in the nation and achieve the goal of allowing people to grow old in their home.
A Ministry of the Interior study found that 70 percent of elderly people would prefer to live with their children, making it clear that when making plans for old age, the elderly focus on the family. Many old people live in housing without elevators, and this becomes an obstacle to their contact with the outside world.
The Cabinet should promptly consider housing needs for the elderly, and look into the laws and regulations, costs, ownership rights and other issues affecting the installation of elevators in old apartment buildings.
Only by initiating an overall discussion of these issues will it be possible to truly achieve the goals of allowing the elderly an active old age and to grow old at home.
Cheng Jen-hung is a former Control Yuan member.
Translated by Eddy Chang and Perry Svensson
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