Question: some people say that older people should live with their adult children, while others think they should live in homes specially built for old people. which do you think is better practice?
ageing societies issue
Answer:
Population aging has become a salient issue that requires the involvement of individual families and the whole society. However, to what extent should family members of the elderly and the society share their responsibilities to take care of older people is a vital question to be answered. Personally, my stance is that the society should take the predominant role for the benefits of elderly.
In terms of demography, aging issues will emerge when the average life expectancy becomes longer and the health system become more robust, but it takes more than demographic policies to alleviate this matter because of the increased pressure on the younger generation. For countries like China, the single-child policy has been imposed for nearly four decades, which implies that for people who were born in 1960s, they were the only child in their families and now they have to provide accommodation, meals and medical services to parents all on their own. Meanwhile, they have to cope with pressures from work, social life and raising up their own kids. Therefore, it takes more than family members to impede the escalation of population aging.
In developed countries, retirement homes, where the elderly are treated with professional services, entertained with various facilities and socialized with others, have contributed significantly toward the sound physical condition, long life expectancy, and alleviating of loneliness to their residences.
It is necessary to point out that sending the elderly to retirement homes does not give their children the excuse to abdicate the responsibility to maintain the kinship between them. What should the younger generation do is to spend more time if not less visiting, caring and communicating with their parents.
All in all, the combination of professional service from retirement homes and emotional companionship from their children could be the ultimate solution to solve the aging issue, and the society should play a cardinal role.