Problem of lonely death

Categories: Singapore

The Today Online's report on the finding of a human skeleton in an 'abandoned' house raises the question of care for the elderly in our society.

A background to the story. National Environment Agency officers found the skeleton lying on the toilet bowl in the kitchen toilet when they carried out an investigations into complaint about mosquitoes in the area. It was later revealed that this 'abandoned' house was the home of two sisters. Whereas the whereabout of one of them is not known, the deceased was probably last seen last year. According to an ex-neighbour, the sisters generally kept to themselves and seldom mixed around.

As Singapore is greying, the likelihood of such unfortunate occurence is only getting more likely. There are a few contributory factors.

Singlehood is getting more and more common nowadays. Hence as one gets older, there is no one to take care of them. The luckier ones have siblings and friends but this can not be relied upon. Some will go to old folks home but currently old folks home is still a taboo in our society. Hence a lot of singles will live out their lives alone creating a potential for lonely death.

Even those who got married are having less and less children. Some opted for only one child. When the child grows up, he may be working overseas leaving the old folks at home. If only one is around, there may not be anyone who can look after the remaining one. This effect can be lessen with the availability of maids.

As Singapore is getting more global, more and more are working in multi-national companies. Hence there is greater likelihood for Singaporeans to be transferred to other countries as part of their job options. This may leave the old folk alone at home. The situation is worsen if they have only one child.

Nuclear family is a norm nowadays with parents tending to stay on their own. Sometimes there is minimal communications between the child and the parent. As a result, if anything happens, the children may not know what happened until it is too late.

How can this problem be reduced? Certainly in Singapore context, there are always maids available. However this only applies to those who can afford it. For those who can't afford it, there must be other solutions.

In Henderson estate, the RC has installed an emergency panic button which will alert somebody so that help can be accessed. All the old folk have to do is to pull a cord and help will be available. This is a very good method for those who refuses to stay in old folks home. It is also cheaper than hiring a live-in maid. However using this system, there must be volunteers in the same area who will look into the old folks when an alarm is sounded.

Having more subsidised old folks home is another possible solution. However this alone may not solve the problems because of poor perception of such homes. Such perceptions have to be changed so that those without any next-of-kin may move to such homes where care and friendship is available.

Another hurdle to counter is the lack of information on old folks home for those who are not well-versed. Even if they wanted to, if they are ignorant of where to go and what to do, these old folks may be left in the lurch. The challenge here is how to reach out to such old folks so that help can be rendered. Thankfully, this may be less of a problem as society becomes more informed with the rising standards of education.

Neighbours are also important in this respect. Having good neighbourliness can be helpful in times of emergency. At least there is someone who can raised the alarm if he sense something is wrong. However neighbourliness nowadays is something that is seen less and less. This is partly blamed on the busy schedules we live our lives and is unfortunate. In the reported case, a neighbour actually called the police last year after he sensed that something was wrong when he had not seen the occupants for sometime; but unfortunately the case was followed up completely.

As the population is aging, there is a greater challenge for the society to look after itself. Decrease in family size and the trend towards globalisation means that more and more old folks will have to fend for themselves. Until and unless some solutions are found, this incident unfortunately will not be the last.