Doctors at a geriatric conference in Taipei yesterday said that despite the fact that advancements in the medical field had helped extend the average life expectancy of people, there was still room for improvement in care for the elderly, especially in the field of mental health.
Chen Liang-kung (陳亮恭), Chief of Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Division of Geriatric Medicine, told the conference that in the past, when Taiwan’s average life expectancy was below 70 years, the average person needed to be personally looked after for about five to seven years. Now, that number has risen to seven to nine years despite a higher life expectancy of about 80 years, he said.
“This shows that even though we’ve successfully extended people’s lives, we haven’t been able to ensure that patients spend the last years enjoying a high quality of life,” said Chen, adding that Taiwan should follow the WHO’s goal of ensuring physical and mental health for those over 80 years old, with an average life expectancy of 85 years.
Shiu Ruei-shiang (徐瑞祥), Director of the Bureau of Health Promotion’s Division of Adult and Elderly Health, said Taiwan would strive to answer WHO calls for “active aging” with a series of projects focused on elderly physical and mental health, coupled with community involvement.
Several doctors who spoke at the conference also pointed to the rising suicide rate among elderly people, which has climbed to an all-time high, as one of their top concerns and called for more to be done to lower.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
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A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
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