LETTERS: The problems faced by the elderly population are multi-dimensional, especially regarding congenial living space and environment.
Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society adviser Professor Nathan Vytialingam has noted that one of the challenges is the lack of adequate elderly care homes built by the public and private sectors.
He compared this situation with that of other countries such as Australia, where space devoted to communities comprising only the elderly is sponsored by the government.
Another challenge is the level of healthcare that is provided to elderly care, particularly in geriatric services. Ideally, the ratio of geriatrists and specialised care providers or professionals to the elderly population should be at 1:5,000.
In our context, Professor Philip Poi Jun Hua, a leading geriatrist from the Malaysian Society of Geriatric Medicine, says this would mean that there are at least one to two geriatricians per state. Currently, we have only 35 geriatric specialists and the challenge is the need to find another 600 geriatrists to fill a critical gap.
The Malaysian Gerontological Association is also concerned about ensuring and enabling an environment that is conducive for supporting the elderly to lead and live active lives.
So what more can we do to help our elderly population cope with ageing?
The previous administration had planned to ensure that the senior citizens' activity centre or Pusat Aktiviti Warga Emas (PAWE) is available in every parliamentary constituency.
Since March last year, 129 or so have been set up. The government should continue this initiative, with the B40 income group as the target group and with more PAWE assistants to be trained and hired.
In terms of the house-bound elderly who are reliant on round-the-clock care, the director of Social Wellbeing Research Centre of Universiti Malaya, Dr Norma Mansor, proposes that the government provide incentives for family caregivers via old-age support allowance and income tax rebate. The same is done in the United States, Canada and Australia.
To enhance such efforts, the Malaysian Ageing Research Institute (formerly MyAgeing) of Universiti Putra Malaysia intends to build a database of every senior citizen, which requires joint- or interministerial coordination and implementation.
Going forward, the National Policy for Older Persons needs to be updated. The social aspect in the national policy framework should be to promote greater public-private partnerships in provision of care services, especially in terms of homes (including palliative and rehabilitative care).
The private sector should be incentivised with fiscal measures to step up their venture into provision of social care for the elderly. Non-fiscal measures should include promoting a paradigm shift so that social care is not viewed as an unprofitable or loss-making business.
On the other hand, healthcare should be conceptualised as seamlessly integrated with social care and vice versa. Therefore, resources should be planned for retirement savings (private) and pensions (public) to also cover social care.
The increasing integration and assimilation of smart technologies should enable citizens to enjoy quality of life in their old age.
In conclusion, preparing for an ageing nation requires reviewing our public policy, and encouraging and incentivising the private sector to do more in terms of business and corporate social responsibility.
There is no reason why we should not be well poised to "age gracefully".
Jason Loh Seong Wei
EMIR Research, Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times