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.
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
RSS