Societal Trends Towards Old Age Homes in Asian Countries

Asian Countries:

The rate of population is growing so fast especially of old population is also growing rapidly Old age is a natural phenomenon and every single living organism has to come to this age in the life cycle but here the old age phenomenon refers to the old people living in Asian Countries that reach the age of 60s’  or above. Old age is also defined as the final stage of the ones life cycle in which the old one has to depend on others socially and economically. Old homes refer to those homes which are built especially for old people who need special care so another name for such organization is nursing homes for old people in many countries.

Asian Countries Family Culture:

It has been observed in the history of Asian Countries that the family system is strong enough that no one could ever thought to send their parents to the old homes even no concept of old homes exist throughout the history. But now in the contemporary world the families have adopted the mode of nuclear family system instead of the same joint or extended family system. But if it is about the global world or global trend it is witnessed almost in all western countries that the one who reach the age of 60 or 60+ they have been send into the old homes. This is considering as the powerful factor in the western countries to live independently to make one self strong socially and also economically.

Negligence in Elderly Care and Needs

The factor of taking care of the elderly is seriously neglecting by the caretakers and children/family members.  The caretakers do not take much care of their parents or elderly people due to which they have to face many more difficulties in their life. That problem may include the economic factor which eventually affects their social status along with their social safety. They have to adjust to new social networks which are the very problematic thing in old age. Elderly people along with socio-economic problems face many difficulties in taking any decisions at home, they just do not have any participation in decision making. Another factor which is badly effected is their health, they feel depressed and have so many psychological problems due to which they face homelessness and wonder for the protection of their selves. Likewise, the social interaction of elderly people in the community system is a problematic thing, because old people have fear of losing their social circle and almost lost it with the time period and they have fear of being living alone or they wanted to avoid the isolation risk. As they have fear of being losing social networking they start living close to each other to make strong bonds even in old ages and the main path that highlights the senior community problems is, our media (social media) and the virtual one. Both of these engage senior citizens in connecting with the world and also with each other to engage themselves in different activities so that, they would easily spend their time and have social networks among their age fellows. Media facilitate them and support them in taking part in the community in which they live.

Government Role and Responsibilities

Ageing problem is becoming great challenge for the government as the aged one has the most concern with the health services and the government is not fulfilling all requirements. Another important argument is about the ill-health of elderly people which is only cured able by family care. It is an important factor to determine the health of elder people but with the advancement and modern world therapies, the families are getting away from their responsibilities due to which they have to face many difficulties with regard to health. In Asian Countries gender is also a big factor in determining the health problems as Asian women were dependent somehow on their male members of family they just rely on them for each and every favor also regarding to the health so, it results in the neglecting factor when these women reached to elderly time period and face many difficulties. The socio-economic factor also increases the rate of health problems as families start living as nuclear family so they were not much concerned with the life hacks of their elders. Elder people need extra care and attention of the family members but due has been studied that in joint family system the elder one is not gaining much attention and thought that he or she was neglected by the family members but with compare to them who live independently. It has been noticed that there is no such concept of sending old people towards old homes because in rural areas there is no old homes. They never left their elder alone any where whatever the condition was. So, it has been argued that the elders living in joint family system in urban area are neglecting more than those who live in the extended family system in rural areas. 

Policy Formation

Last but not least highlighting factor is the policy formation and it has been witnessed that almost all policies exists in Asian Countries at all levels either regard to women, men child or elderly but elderly responsibility is not carried out effectively. Although NGOs are working to serve poor old people but the governments also have to work on this issue to control it so that the family and their importance should be respectable for the coming generations.