The 10-year long-term care (LTC) plan introduced by the government in 2007 lags behind schedule and is not in good shape, lawmakers told the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday.
The long-term care plan was designed to help Taiwan weather an anticipated crisis caused by a rapidly aging society, with the elderly projected to account for an estimated 14.6 percent of the population in 2018 and 20 percent in 2025, and an increase in the number of people with disabilities, which is expected to reach 1.21 million in 2031.
Under the plan, home and community-based and institutional LTC services are to be provided to those who need assistance to perform activities of daily living, including people who are 65 and older, Aborigines living in mountainous areas aged 55 and older, people with disabilities over 50 and elderly people who only need help with crucial daily activities, but who live alone.
However, while the plan is now well into its sixth year, lawmakers questioned the success of its implementation, saying that there are loopholes and unfinished work even in the first stage of the plan, which was supposed to be completed by 2011.
The first stage entails building elementary facilities and infrastructure for future service distribution, and training professional care workers.
To cater for the rising number of elderly people who need the service, about 30,000 more caregivers have to be operational by 2016, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) said that only 30 percent of government-trained caregivers are delivering long-term care services, and the majority of them work in institutions and hospitals, showing that few are willing to be employed as home-based long-term care service providers.
“As the report by the Council of Labor Affairs shows, the outflow of [home-based] caregivers has a lot to do with the hard work and poor working conditions. They are paid hourly, in contrast to the stable monthly salaries paid by institutions and hospitals,” said Wang, who added that the current hourly wage of NT$180 should be increased.
Chen urged the government to consider the feasibility of keeping the accreditations of institutional and home-based long-term care services apart, which would then generate two separate pools of caregivers, instead of ending up with a lopsided distribution of human resources.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
STAY COOL: The HPA recommended that people stay hydrated, use air-conditioning or fans while indoors, wear loose-fitting clothes and walk in the shade while outdoors Employers must implement measures such as installing cooling equipment, and providing drinking water and rest breaks for outdoor workers starting from Monday next week, the Taipei Department of Labor said on Sunday. Employers who fail to comply could face fines of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), the department said. Businesses in Taipei employing fewer than 100 workers, as well as registered self-employed workers with labor insurance coverage, could receive on-site assessments and guidance from occupational safety consultants to help them apply for central government subsidies to implement or improve heat-protection measures, it said. Under the Ministry of
RSS