Baby boomers want retirement homes
Some among the baby boomer generation would prefer that to burdening loved ones
By Radha Basu
Some have known first-hand the emotionally exhausting task of looking after elderly parents who lose their strength and senses, bit by agonising bit.
Others have heard about the hard realities of ageing from friends and colleagues who have gone on arduous caregiving journeys themselves.
Born between 1947 and 1964, Singapore's one million baby boomers are better educated, independent and more affluent than their parents.
As they hurtle towards old age, some among them are arriving at a common resolve: They don't want to live out their last days by burdening loved ones, mired in dependence, decrepitude - possibly even depression. They want to live and die in self-contained retirement communities, cared for by paid professionals, surrounded by friends - and visited often by family.
Singapore has one of the fastest- ageing populations in the world with the number of those aged 65 and above set to triple to 900,000 in the next two decades.
But as of now, there are no residential communities for retired folk here despite a sharp increase in the number of elderly people living alone or by themselves.
There were 22,000 elderly people living alone in 2005, up from 15,000 five years earlier. Another 25,000 elderly couples live on their own.
As of last year, Singapore had 166,500 people aged 40 and above who were single, up from only 112,700 in 2000.
A two-day conference, the Ageing Asia Investment Forum, which starts here tomorrow, will focus on the opportunities and challenges of setting up retirement villages and aged-care services in Singapore and the region.
Retirement-home advocates like Ms Ricca Liu, 64, and Ms Anne Holloway, 61, are among a relatively small but significant group of older folk swimming against the tide of experts who extol the virtues of ageing in place and inter-generational bonding.
Ms Liu, who is divorced and has no children, returned home to Singapore after 35 years in Europe to be with friends and family and care for her aged mother, Madam Joyce Liu, 88. Mother and daughter live alone in a private apartment in the Orchard Road area.
'Having had no children, I do not expect and cannot rely on anyone to look after me in my old age,' said Ms Liu. Rather than live alone in a condominium with paid help, she hopes to live in a 'comfortable and well-administered' retirement community with round-the-clock nursing facilities, home-help services and optional leisure activities.
Her cousin, former advertising executive Ms Holloway, who lives with her 81-year-old Singaporean husband, has similar dreams. 'We are prepared to pay for such services. But someone should offer them to us.'
She added that while she respects the Government's moves to get people to 'age in place' - by building age-friendly infrastructure, such as wheelchair ramps, in the community - such a 'one size fits all' approach may not suit everybody.
'A part of living in a developed, increasingly affluent society is about having choices as consumers,' she said. 'And right now, we hardly have any as far as retirement living goes.'
While Ms Holloway also has no children, there are plenty of mums and dads who also harbour hopes of living in self-contained communities of older folk, with their own care services, grocery store and even hair salons. And many of them are looking not at upper-tier homes that cater solely to the rich, but to ordinary Singaporeans.
Nurse manager V.T. Devi, 55, a mother of three grown-up children who lives in a four-room HDB flat, said she too would prefer to spend her old age in a retirement home. She spent eight years nursing her mother-in-law who had Alzheimer's disease. The older woman died in February.
Singapore needs retirement villages which combine nursing and elder-care facilities with the comforts, conveniences and freedom of home, said Ms Devi, who works in an old-age home.
'This is particularly true for my generation who do not want to live with our children and be full-time child minders for our grandchildren.'
That's a sentiment that is sure to strike a chord with others. A survey of baby boomers commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and released last year showed that one in four said he would not mind living in a retirement village.
Of them, half were below 50, a third had tertiary education and 70 per cent had no children or just one or two children, said sociologist Angelique Chan from the National University of Singapore who conducted the survey.
Nursing homes that offer a 'home-like environment', meanwhile, have already proved to be a hit, said Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home executive director Low Mui Lang.
Her facility has a 'residential living area' for relatively independent dementia patients where residents have their own rooms and even cook breakfast in their own pantry. The facility, which opened with 32 beds in 2006 and now has close to 60, is almost full. Private patients at the facility are charged between $1,540 and $1,780 a month, depending on the level of care.
While Housing Board estates are gradually becoming elder-friendly, with food centres, shops and salons in close proximity, getting older folk to access inexpensive home health-care or domestic-care services may not be easy if they are scattered in blocks that accommodate younger people as well, said Ms Low.
'Given the shortage of services such as home nursing and physiotherapy, it may be more efficient and productive to house the elderly in a couple of blocks in each estate and get professional elder-care staff to visit them regularly.'
In late 2006, the Government made a Jalan Jurong Kechil site available for sale to developers interested in building retirement homes. But that has had no takers yet.
Property developer Daniel Teo, who is interested in building retirement homes, said that one problem is that the land comes with a 30-year-lease, 'which is simply too short' for any developer to build an economically viable project.
'Imagine leasing a place to a 55-year-old and telling him you may need to move out when you are 85,' said Mr Teo, a former head of the Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore. 'That will simply not do.'
The Government, on its part, said recently that it would study a suggestion by Nominated MP Laurence Wee that those interested in developing such villages be given the option of 60-year land leases - or 30-year leases that can be extended for a further 30-year period.
Mr Teo hopes a decision can be taken soon, given that there is a growing demand for retirement homes. 'When the silver tsunami hits, we do not want to be caught unprepared.'
radhab@sph.com.sg
What are your views on retirement villages? Would they work in Singapore? E-mail suntimes@sph.com.sg
Ms Ricca Liu (left), 64, who has no children, returned to Singapore after 35 years in Europe to care for her aged mother, Madam Joyce Liu, 88. Rather than live alone, she and her cousin Anne Holloway, 61, who also has no children, are among those who hope to live in a comfortable retirement community here. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment