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2024 / 10 / 04
The Pap-free scale hires foreign caregivers, and the long-term care risks hidden by the policy for the elderly over 80 years old
In order to reduce the burden on elderly or disabled families, the Ministry of Labour last October relaxed the conditions for hiring foreign care workers. As long as long-term care 2.0 services are used continuously for more than half a year, or there is mild dementia or specific moderate to severe disability, foreign care can be hired directly without providing proof of Pap scale disability. This change is regarded as a convenience move. However, recently, KMT legislators further proposed that elderly people over 80 years old and patients aged 70 to 79 years old with stage 2 cancer can directly hire foreign caregivers without medical evaluation. This proposal has triggered social discussion. Is this a convenience or a hidden danger?
The long-term photo problem that a door of convenience may bring
One of the reasons why the Ministry of Labor opposes this proposal is that there are more than 530,000 elderly people over the age of 80 in Taiwan who are not disabled. If they are exempted from evaluation, it may lead to a large number of elderly people competing to hire foreign caregivers, so that foreign caregivers who are supposed to take care of critically ill patients can Instead, take care of healthy elderly people. In addition, the country is currently introducing foreign care through quotas to protect the employment opportunities of domestic carers. Over-relaxation of conditions can misplace resources, affecting patients who really need care.
Civil society groups also have reservations about this proposal. Family Caregiver Care will always remind that the premature hiring of foreign caregivers may accelerate the degradation of the elderly’s ability to live independently. Foreign caregivers performing daily activities on behalf of the elderly, such as housework, shopping, etc., will reduce the opportunities for the elderly to go out and thus affect their physical and mental health.
Challenges for long-illumination systems
Li Yuchun, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, pointed out that care in the late acute period needs to promote resilience through rehabilitation. Over-reliance on foreign care may gradually incapacitate the elderly and increase the burden of long-term care. What’s more serious is that after the policy is relaxed, it may attract long-term care 2.0 users to hire foreign caregivers. This will affect the government’s long-term care budget allocation and the employment opportunities of local care providers. In the future, it will also be more difficult to promote long-term care insurance.
Improving evaluation mechanisms will solve the underlying problems
Exempting the assessment of the Pap scale, although it brings convenience on the surface, what really needs to be addressed is the cumbersome nature of the long-term assessment process. At present, when family members apply for long-term care services, they often need to conduct multiple assessments, which consumes time and energy. Rather than simplifying assessment, it may be better to integrate assessment procedures for long-term care and disability identification to reduce the burden on family members.
This discussion on relaxing the employment of foreign care reminds us that we need to weigh the convenience and long-term impact of policies more carefully to ensure that resources are allocated appropriately to truly help families in need of care.