A FORMER senior state executive councillor has called on Penang to place more priority on providing affordable nursing homes and palliative care by the time the state reaches its aged community status in 2040.
Currently, Penang has reached the threshold of an ageing society status where seven per cent of its population is aged 65 and above while by 2040, the figure will reach 19% of its society, which would fall into such an age group.
This has triggered an all-out effort namely by the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) to ready the state to embrace the consequences of becoming a state with many old folks.
To this, former Batu Maung assemblyman Datuk Abdul Halim Hussein said that the focus should not just be on providing services but encouraging more investments in areas such as nursing care and palliative services.
Such facilities and services are available now but they are inadequate to meet the expectations of the elderly and their families, who are the primary caregivers, he said.
There is a presence of such services now, but the cost is exorbitant, beyond the reach of the working class, Halim stressed.
"It is nice on paper but in reality, many B60 and M20 (low to medium middle class) families cannot afford quality nursing care for their parents. The struggle is evident and soon it will become a real crisis for the country and state," said Halim.
He said that such struggles are associated with the customary family situation and the state has yet to grasp the struggle of dealing with the disfranchised such as the single parents, the unmarried, the chronically ill and the disabled.
It is getting difficult for the young to care for the elderly because their job situation does not permit it, nor is the nursing care services made affordable.
To underscore further, Halim said that the income earning does not allow B40 families to place their elderly loved ones into proper nursing care homes.
There is a need for the government to inject subsidies and to provide incentives to make caring for the old sustainable and affordable, while also encouraging more investments into this needy area, said Halim.
He said that the state can help by easing the costs of doing business and providing space as well as properties which can be turned into nursing care services.
Secondly, there is a need to provide skilled workers in this area of delicate care for the old, as well as providing mental counselling in view that many old folks suffer from anxieties in living in old age.
Halim, a former State Legislative Speaker, said that investments can come in providing new schemes to allow people to invest in to prepare for old age living.
Healthcare costs is one area which has escalated significantly after the gradual easing of the Covid-19 pandemic status to an endemic one.
It has also impacted on care for the old with record numbers seeking treatment at public and private hospitals, said Halim.
MBPP through its president and island's Lord Mayor Datuk A. Rajendran has taken cognisance of this aged society status and has directed the council to be prepared to fine-tune its social amenities and policies.
The council has since collaborated with the Penang Women Development Council and the Malaysian Healthy Aging Society to develop effective policies and an action plan.
MBPP now has listed eight domains which will be part of its action plan to become friendly to senior citizens.
Its town and country planning officer Rabiatul Adawiyah Rohaimi told the media that MBPP won the senior citizen's welfare award from the Housing and Local Government Ministry recently. - October 25, 2024.
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