A group representing caregivers yesterday called for public awareness of families dealing with long-term care burdens, while reassuring caregivers that support is available, after a family was found dead on Friday.
The Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers issued the call after a couple and their two children were found dead in a vehicle in Kaohsiung in what is believed to have been a murder-suicide.
The body of a 57-year-old man surnamed Chien (簡) was found in the driver’s seat when police arrived at the scene after receiving a report at about 8am.
Chien’s wife, 52, son, 24, and daughter, 11, were lying on the rear seat, possibly asphyxiated by exhaust fumes, police said.
No suicide note was found in the vehicle, and the case has been turned over to prosecutors and forensic investigators to determine the cause of death, police said.
The family was from a low to middle-income household that received NT$10,130 in subsidies per month, Kaohsiung Social Affairs Bureau employees said.
Chien, the sole breadwinner of the family, worked odd jobs while caring for his wife, who had cancer, while his son had epilepsy and his daughter had aphasia, Daliao District (大寮) Chief Huang Po-hsiung (黃伯雄) said.
His wife’s cancer might have been too much for Chien, association secretary-general Chen Ching-ning (陳景寧) said.
Tragedies among families in long-term care situations often result from a caregiver’s inability to take on additional burdens and their sense of desperation in the absence of social support, Chen said.
The association has identified 13 risk factors for recognizing overburdened family caregivers, it said, adding that people outside a family can help prevent similar tragedies.
The signs include: The caregiver has suicidal thoughts; is experiencing domestic violence; is in urgent need of medical treatment; is a patient themselves; has mental disorders; attends to a person with mental issues; or must care for two or more patients, especially when the patients are older.
Some caregivers do not have outside assistance or must take over from a domestic care worker who had been the primary caregiver, it said.
Others at risk are those who care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or have been denied government aid, it said, adding that male caregivers in particular might need more support.
Surveys in Japan have found that male caregivers, due to their relative lack of skill in caregiving and the burdens of cultural pressure, might take drastic actions when dealing with stress as a result of their circumstances, the association said.
Caregivers might also experience more emotional fluctuations as the end of the year approaches, it said.
At least three of the factors appear to have been present in the Kaohsiung case, such as the caregiver being male and having to attend to two or more people with no help, it said.
As the government has limited professional personnel to address the issue, it should raise public awareness about the challenges family caregivers face, so people in their communities can offer timely help to those under extreme stress, it said.
Government subsidies for such families have not been used effectively, because ordinary caregivers need more time to change their notions of care, and also need psychological and social support, Chen said.
Official support for heavily burdened caregivers usually ends when they reject outside help, which might constitute the largest loophole in the network, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘LONE WOLF’: The suspect was difficult to locate, as he did not use a cellphone, did not contact family and often lived in abandoned sites or parks, police said Taipei police on Thursday morning arrested a man accused of numerous burglaries and at least 14 incidents of sexual assault spanning more than 20 years, in what might be the nation’s most notorious crime spree in recent years. Sixty-year-old Tu Ming-lang (涂明朗) — who was yesterday placed in judicial detention, after a judge determined he was a flight risk without a fixed address — faces multiple charges of sexual assault and burglary, police said. A task force comprised of various law enforcement agencies arrested Tu as part of an investigation into an April 28 burglary in Daan District (大安), in which a
Ninth graders were asked to define “trolling” on this year’s standardized exam, reflecting efforts to make the test better reflect real-life situations. Adjustments to this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students were revealed on Sunday, after the last cohort of students completed the test over the weekend. The Ministry of Education solicited feedback about the test from teachers, who approved of the new question in the English portion. Not only was question No. 20 “very much in line with real-life situations,” but it also used a new style in which students were asked to ascertain the correct dictionary definition based
Taiwan is on alert for monkeypox, a rare viral disease that has caused 87 infections in 11 countries over the past three weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Saturday. The WHO on Friday convened an emergency session to discuss a sudden outbreak of monkeypox in North America and Europe. Since the beginning of this month, 87 confirmed cases and 28 possible cases have been identified in 11 countries. The countries with the highest case counts are England with 29 cases, and Portugal and Spain with 23 each. Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease occurring primarily in the tropical rainforest areas
Three human skeletons and artifacts believed to be about 400 years old were unearthed by construction workers at National Ilan University in Yilan County, the university said yesterday. The discoveries were made on May 10 as workers were digging to expand the College of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science’s facilities, the university said in a statement. The skeletons were found at three sites, along with glass beads, copper bells and rings, discs and a fish-shaped metal knot, it said. The find is likely connected to the “Old Baili Village” (擺厘舊社, Bai Li Jiu She), an as-yet-undiscovered Kavalan settlement that has been mentioned in
RSS