Caring for the elderly

AS the world’s oldest prime minister at age 93, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a glowing testament to the fact that age is just a number and does not determine one’s physical or mental abilities.

However, in a society that has failed to value the knowledge, experience and skills of the aged population, Dr Mahathir is an exception rather than the norm. Instead of being treated as assets, senior citizens are often deemed a burden to society.

Thus, old people have been sidelined from the mainstream society, leading to several adverse repercussions. For instance, the loneliness faced by the elderly has been proven to cause various illnesses and even early deaths.

To combat this issue, we need to find ways to actively assimilate senior citizens to society. One of the ways this can be done is through time banking.

The gift of time

Time banking is essentially a reciprocity system that works with the concept of providing services in exchange for time as the currency. Services provided include elderly care, childcare, assistance with household chores and companionship.

This idea of service exchange has been around in different forms for more than 100 years.

However, the term time banking was coined when Edgar S. Cahn, a distinguished American professor of law, gave the ancient practice a structure and brought it into the limelight in 1980.

Although people of all ages can participate in time banking, it is a particularly effective avenue for involving senior citizens as both provider and receiver of services.

Introduced in Japan in 1995 as a form of time banking, Fureai Kippu is a mutual support network that allows members of all ages to provide care for older people through exchange of time credits.

A report titled Time bank lets Japan’s seniors swop services for free - from cleaning to companionship by Channel NewsAsia gives an account of Tatsumi Okabe and how time banking helps the elderly population in Japan.

Seventy-eight-year-old Okabe meets an elderly couple once a month for lunch, providing them with valuable companionship while earning time credits in return. Okabe can use the time credits to receive services for himself.

Besides Japan, this concept has been successfully implemented in more than 32 countries to date, including Norway, South Africa, New Zealand, South Korea, Argentina, Taiwan and Greece.

Recreating society

Households in which adult children live with their elderly parents are still prevalent in Asian countries, including Malaysia.

However, with work taking up most of their time, it has become increasingly difficult for these individuals to provide company or even basic care to their ageing parents.

Time banking allows senior individuals to contribute to society in their own ways and be cared for in return, lifting some of the weight of responsibility off the shoulders of their loved ones.

As a multiracial and multicultural country that promotes peaceful co-existence of its citizens, Malaysia is in a prime position to implement a concept such as time banking towards building a community that cares for each other.

With the Government going all out to transform Malaysia into a developed nation within the next decade, this small step would thrust the country in the right direction, creating a strong, united and caring nation.