Nina Muslim
12 Sept 2024
Many elderly end up having to leave their homes and communities because there is a lack of support services to provide them with the care they need
PULLOUT QUOTE: "We are forcing people out of their homes because there are no services there to enable them to live independently or to get services to where they are living.” - Prof Rahimah Ibrahim
IT was just a day like any other when Assoc Prof Rahimah Ibrahim received a call from her mother telling her that her 77-year-old father had fallen and had to be hospitalised.
It was as if a switch had flipped.
One day everything seemed normal and the next, the director of the Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing at Universiti Putra Malaysia and her siblings had to face the fact that their parents were becoming more frail. With that, came several questions.
Can their parents still live on their own? Would living with one of their children be better for them instead? How about sending them to a care centre? Can they continue to live at home when their house may not be friendly to their aches and pains?
Not once were her parents willing to entertain the idea of moving elsewhere, even to live with their adult children. Neither were they interested in moving to a new neighbourhood or development where things may be easier for them as they age, from the design of the abode to the environment around them.
What Rahimah’s parents want, and what research says is healthier for them, is to age in place.