With Taiwan expected to become a “super-aged society” next year, the government plans to introduce the Long-term Care 3.0 program in the first half of next year to provide elderly people with more comprehensive care and allow home caregivers to have a breather, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said on Friday.
Cheng in a media interview said that a cross-ministerial long-term care task force under the supervision of the Executive Yuan is working out the details of the plan, with the new program expected not only to take care of more elderly people, but also integrate local healthcare services with welfare mechanism to build a complete long-term national care system.
SUPER-AGED SOCIETY
Photo: Taipei Times
The WHO defines a super-aged society as one in which 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older, while an “aged society” is one in which 14 percent of the population is aged 65 or older, and an “aging society” is one in which 7 percent of the population is in this category.
According to the definitions, Taiwan became an aging society in 1993, and an aged society in 2018. Next year, the country would become a super-aged society.
President William Lai (賴清德) in his inauguration speech on May 20 spoke about the goal of achieving a “healthier Taiwan.”
To achieve it, the government has put measures in place such as the Long-term Care Plan 3.0 to strengthen care services for elderly people by increasing the number of care facilities and integrating national healthcare and welfare resources.
Since former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) unveiled the Long-term Care Plan 2.0 in 2016, the budget and the number of service providers and venues that provide such care have increased significantly, Cheng said.
In the past three years, the percentage of people needing care who have received care has been on the rise as the government intensified efforts to provide services. Last year, the ratio was 80.19 percent, up from 69.51 percent in 2022 and 56.60 percent in 2021.
Taiwan has set a goal of serving 87 percent of people who need care over the next four years by improving its long-term care services.
As part of the Long-term Care Plan 2.0, Taiwan has set up a greater number of venues in many neighborhoods to provide home care, dining and health promotion services, Cheng said.
REDUCING BURDEN
The Long-term Care Plan 3.0 would focus on families that need to take care of their members with severe illness, as they shoulder a heavier financial burden, Cheng said, adding that the upcoming plan would provide diversified and continued care for these groups.
Cheng said she has seen critically ill people being discharged from hospitals, but soon being rushed back to emergency rooms, as their illness deteriorated and family members encountered difficulties taking care of them.
Many people admitted into caregiving institutions frequently return to hospital, which places a psychological strain on the families, Cheng said, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to strengthen the healthcare network so that people receive high-quality care whether at home or in a caregiving institution.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS