WHEN IT IS UNSAFE FOR THE ELDERLY TO LIVE ALONE

Source: Elderly and Home Alone

I have several family members and good friends in their 60s and 70s living alone. Some do so by choice - they value having their own space and privacy. Others live alone because they are divorced, widowed or choose to remain single. The extended family has given way to the nuclear family unit, with adult children leaving the family ancestral home to set up their own home elsewhere. Many of my Malaysian friends have adult children working in Singapore, or have settled in other countries like Australia and Canada. Their home has become an empty nest. For single parents, this may mean living alone.

Source: Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore

Living alone is fine if we are still in good health, and physically and mentally fit. But what if the unexpected happens? What if we suffer a heart attack, a stroke or lose consciousness after a fall? Who is there to help us, to render first aid or call for an ambulance?

File picture

This is exactly what happened to my mother in 2011. She was 86 then. I can still recall that fateful day when I returned in the afternoon from a weekend trip to find her lying on the floor next to the bathroom in a pool of urine.

I had decided to return a day earlier. Had I not done so, my mom would have lain there for a good 24 hours or more on the cold hard floor and in the dark when night came. We found out later that she had fractured her hip and suffered a slight concussion. (I wrote a series of articles about this episode. They are filed under Archives, March 2011.)

The Population Trends 2013 report of the Department of Statistics, Singapore, showed there were 109,500 one-resident households in 2012 - more than triple the 32,400 in 1992. In South Korea, such households shot up from 9 per cent in 1990 to 23.9 per cent in 2010 in South Korea, and from 13.4 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 2010 in Taiwan. (Statistics from NUS Asia Research Institute).

Source: A Place for Mom

If you (or your elderly parent) display any number of the the above signs, it is time to make alternative living arrangements. Either you move in with your children or vice versa. Or engage the services of a caregiver who is trained in aged care, is reliable and also trustworthy. If you can afford it, there is the retirement home or the nursing home, depending on how much assistance you need with activities of daily living (ADL).

We may be in our 60s or 70s now, still active and able to manage on our own. But inevitably there will come a time when it will no longer be safe for us to live on our own. How prepared are we to face that eventuality? What plans do we have to ensure that we continue to be cared for by our loved ones?

The future is closer than we think, and we should take heed.

TO WORK OR NOT TO WORK AFTER 65? DO WE REALLY HAVE A CHOICE?

Who in their right mind would want to continue working upon reaching retirement age? After spending the best years of our lives working hard for others just so we can feed the family, most of us can't wait to clock out for good.

No more daily stress of a 9-5 job. The sheer joy of waking up late, and spending the rest of the day doing what we like. Time is our own, and we can finally withdraw all our savings from the EPF/CPF to spend as we like.

Life can't possibly be better than this. No wonder the retirement years are aptly called the golden years.

Yet, in a simple survey carried out by the Straits Times recently, 70% of the 50 workers aged 55+ said they would want to keep on working.

Straits Times, 3 May 2014

A good friend of mine is a strong advocate of full retirement after 55. He feels that retirees should not seek re-employment. They should just enjoy life to the full. For many that would mean playing golf, travelling, picking up new hobbies and spending time with the family.

Sure, we all deserve the good life upon retirement, don't we? But sad to say, many of us, especially those from the middle income bracket, can't afford to simply stop working. What happens when the pay check stops coming in? Who will take care of the bills for utilities? Who will pay for our children's postgraduate studies? Who will foot our elderly parents' medical expenses? Who will keep up with the mortgage payments and the insurance premiums?

And what about the rising cost of food and fuel? Inflation eats into whatever little savings we have.

We may live longer now thanks to better healthcare and advances in medicine, but longevity can be a bane for those who do not have adequate savings to support 15-20 years of retirement.

It's a growing worldwide trend for older workers to seek re-employment after retirement.

If your company offers to re-employ you in a different capacity, or extend your contract after you have reached retirement age, would you accept the offer?

I bet the answer for many of us is YES. We really don't have much of a choice.

You might want to read the following related article:

WORK BEYOND 65? WHY NOT?