The Keelung City Government last week held a plaque revealing ceremony for a long-term care center for elderly people in Jhongjheng District (中正).
The privately owned Jintian Daycare Center would be the city’s ninth community-based elderly care facility and was built to meet the national standard of having one care center in every high-school district, Keelung Department of Social Affairs director Wu Ting-feng (吳挺鋒) said on Wednesday.
The center can provide care to 40 mental or physically disabled senior citizens, allowing district residents to have access to long-term care resources near their homes, he said.
According to census data from September, 19.04 percent of Keelung’s 361,000 residents are over 65, Wu said, adding that the elderly demographic increased 3.22 percent since last year.
Senior citizens make up 20.6 percent of the district’s population, the second-highest ratio in the city, which means care centers providing “Long-Term Care 2.0” services are urgently needed, he said.
The department said more centers should be established to help Keelung families.
The city’s long-term care centers, including the Jintian center, can serve 320 people a day, it said.
Care provided in the district is key to achieving the central government’s policy of aging-in-place, Wu said.
The center is to organize a wide range of activities to stimulate the minds and bodies of elders, including group interactions, handicrafts and tea tasting, which would help slow down age-related decline, center head Lin Tzu-yu (林子又) said.
The centers would provide communal video game sessions using the Nintendo Switch console, as such games promote social interaction, physical strength and hand-eye coordination, he said.
Keelung residents in need of care services for elderly relatives can call the 1966 long-term care hotline, the department said.
The hotline helps applicants navigate the process of finding the right services and providers to fit their needs, it said.
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