Fatimah (fourth right) watches as senior citizens play a board game.
KUCHING: Senior citizens make the largest group of welfare assistance recipients in the state at 22,870 individuals as of yesterday.
The figure is likely to rise as Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said it is projected that 15 per cent of the Malaysian population will be 60 years old and above by 2030.
As such, the state government had been more committed to providing elderly care while her ministry had also set up a committee to look into the developmental care of senior citizens.
“To be eligible for the monthly senior citizen assistance, they must be Malaysian citizens with monthly earning below RM830. And they have to be aged 60 and above.
“Senior citizen recipients are the most among all other welfare assistance recipients including children of single mothers. We are also looking at a more holistic plan to offer daycare services,” she said after visiting the Trinity ElderCare Centre (TEC) at Ellis Road here yesterday.
Operated under Trinity ElderCare Berhad, the centre is a non-profit organisation (NGO) affiliated with Trinity Methodist Church here.
Talking about care for the elderly, she disclosed that Sarawak had two government-run homes for the elderly (Rumah Seri Kenangan or RSK) – one each in Kuching and Sibu – seven senior citizen activity centres and 12 senior citizen service centres besides home help services for some 480 senior citizens.
“With home help services, people go to the home of the elderly to help with chores, food, shopping or just to talk. Both RSK in Kuching and Sibu have 61 and 54 residents respectively.”
She noted that though the two RSK had a capacity of 100 people each, they had not been utilised to the full perhaps because many children preferred to give the best to their aged parents. On TEC, she said it is a safe, clean, comfortable and pleasant centre.
“It is spacious and the environment is pleasant that gives you comfortable and safe feelings. The longer you stay here the more you see it is a meaningful place for the elderly. Meaningful because they are treated with dignity, given the love and care by people who are competent and compassionate.”
Fatimah admitted the visit also aimed at acquiring input for the reconstruction of RSK Kuching.
“We want to get the benchmark of qualify for daycare centres,” she said, believing the TEC team would not have achieved what they had today without teamwork, expertise and compassion derived from their faith.
Touching on government grants, she said they were normally given as operating budget for institutions that provided services for free.
“If you do not charge the residents, then the government can come in to help with the operating costs such as electricity and water bills, staff salaries and food.”
In the case of TEC, she said the government could offer a one-off grant for certain purposes.
She thus encouraged the management of the centre to make a bid with a clear objective, adding: “We are tied down by policies, but we still can work out some means together.”
She said two NGOs, Sibu Benevolent Society and Hun Nam Siang T’ng Kuching, had been receiving government grants.
At the same time, she hoped all other senior citizen care centres would emulate TEC to provide comprehensive care for residents in tandem with the government’s policy of keeping senior citizens positive, active and productive.