Premier Lin Chuan today attended the inauguration of the Gangbei Community long-term care center in Hsinchu City that promotes the use of video calling technology to check in on elderly residents in the neighborhood.
As Taiwan's birth rate declines, young people balancing work and caring for aging parents can take advantage of modern technology to ease their burdens and improve the quality of care, the premier said. The Gangbei center, a Tier C "corner store" under the government's long-term care 2.0 plan, brings the creativity of young people to the long-term care industry, which is exactly what was needed. The government hopes to build this creative element into the system and make it a milestone and standard practice in long-term care.
With an aging population and changes in Taiwan's social structure, senior citizens are now less likely to be cared for by their children and family. As people age, their bodily functions and physical and mental capacity gradually decline, and they need more interaction with other people. Organizing activities and providing the space for these interactions is an important preventive effort in the long-term care scheme—the older the individual, the more assistance and care will be required. Modern society is responsible for improving the quality of life for every senior citizen, and the government will make every effort to accomplish this task, the premier said.
In the past, many families hired foreign workers to help look after their elderly parents because Taiwan lacked an adequate long-term care system. Now the government is building a comprehensive care system by establishing community centers that provide home care, day care, and someday soon, professional health care by representatives from medical institutes. The government will roll out these measures on a trial basis using designated tax revenues, cultivate the long-term care industry and establish demonstration sites across Taiwan. Once long-term care standards and regulations are put in place, the system will be expanded island-wide just like the National Health Insurance program.
With the help of the Legislature, long-term care policy saw a breakthrough last year when the Long-term Care Services Act was amended to raise designated taxes to fund the system, initially bringing in NT$20 billion (US$647.2 million). If official budgets are also included, a total NT$30 billion to NT$40 billion (US$970.9 million to US$1.3 billion) will be available to lay the groundwork for the nation's long-term care industry. In the future, funding needs for the program will increase to more than NT$100 billion (US$3.2 billion), at which point the government will evaluate the situation and consider how to expand the program.