Caregivers for bedridden elderly folk at home entitled to govt aid
KUCHING: Caregivers for bedridden elderly folk at home are entitled to apply for government welfare aid, according to Sarawak Gerontology and Geriatrics Society (SGGS).
Its advisor Irene Yong said Sarawak was not a welfare state as in developed countries where the government would look after those turning 60 by providing them with almost everything for free including medical services.
“Their system is that when you are working they tax you heavily, so when you’re old, the government returns the money to you. We are not doing that as that will change the whole Ministry of Finance’s system.
“What our government does is what they call financial aid for the elderly poor. The other aid is if you have somebody in your family registered as looking after a bedridden elderly, it is called a caregiver and a caregiver gets aid also.
“As a caregiver, don’t forget you can apply for aid if you have a bedridden elderly you’re taking care of at home,” she said at the Freedom Film Festival 2022 which took place at Haus KCH on Saturday.
She was sharing about welfare aid being available to the elderly, after the screening of ‘Grey Scale’, a short documentary told through the eyes of a woman, 80, coincidentally named Irene.
Directed by Penang-based multi-disciplinary researcher Evelyn Teh, ‘Grey Scale’ examines what it means for Irene to live alone and grow old in a gentrifying neighbourhood. During the Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order, new challenges force her to adapt to the rapidly changing world around her.
On a related note, Yong told the festival audience to start planning for the kind of old age they want.
“From my experience, I’m 75 years old, I will tell you that when you start to age, you will grow. When you stop growing, you start to age. How fast you go downhill is up to you. Think about that.
“In school, teachers ask you where do you see yourself five years, 10 years from now? Now I ask you, how do you see yourself when you’re 60, 75?
“So you start to plan now the kind of future you want. When you are old, do you want to be that kind of Irene in the film or you want to be the Irene sitting here in this studio?”
Meanwhile, SGGS president Dennis Tan, who was also present, said the Society was concerned with the elderly, particularly the healthy elderly.
He said there are four stages in the aging process – Stage 1 being the healthy elderly; Stage 2 the elderly in the nursing home; Stage 3, in debilitive stage; and Stage 4, in the terminal stage ‘waiting for the time to go’.
“In SGGS, we are concerned with the first stage. We in Stage 1 aim to prevent ourselves from going into the second stage and try not to go into the third, and maybe make the fourth stage faster without being a burden to our family.
“Putting all these stages into perspective, we in SGGS want to enhance our golden years,” he said.
Those who want to get in touch with SGGS can contact Tan on 019-8557719.
The Freedom Film Festival 2022 is themed Pandemik Dua Darjat (Pandemic of Inequality). It is about how the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the inequality between the haves and have-nots, and between those in power and the disempowered.
The line-up consists of some of the most deep, difficult and daring films produced just before and during the pandemic.