Taiwan Struggles To Provide Long-Term Care for Its Aging Population

Taiwan is on its way to being a super-aged society by 2025, yet it's still struggling to meet demand for long-term care for the country's elderly.

Transcript

00:00 Taiwan has spent more money on long-term care in 2023 than ever before.

00:05 But over $2 billion U.S. was still not enough to meet the country's ever-greater need

00:09 to care for its elderly population.

00:12 This problem came into harsh focus in the past week when a man in the southern city

00:15 of Tainan was arrested for killing his ill mother.

00:19 Reports said the stress of taking care of her was too much for him.

00:22 In Taiwan, looking after elderly people is a responsibility that often falls on their

00:27 immediate family or migrant workers.

00:30 Healthcare professionals say help is available for these caregivers, but many struggle to

00:34 find it.

00:35 We know that many caregivers are not used to seeking help.

00:39 Our system has a system for caring for caregivers, but there are still some areas that are not

00:45 popular.

00:46 Despite Taiwan's record budget this year for long-term care, people in the industry

00:50 say medical capacity is the bigger issue.

00:53 We have been doing this for so many years, but there are very few people who can use

01:00 it.

01:01 The root cause of this problem is still the lack of supply.

01:06 Taiwan is not the only country facing these challenges.

01:10 Neighboring Japan and South Korea have similarly aging societies and their own plans to meet

01:15 rising demands for long-term care.

01:17 But for Taiwan, the ability to look after its older population will come down to the

01:21 resources it's willing to commit to its caregivers.

01:25 Luffy Lee, Philip Brossard, and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.

01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]