The Study of the Knowledge and Use of Welfare Services by Elderly Living Alone-Exemplified by Taipei County Linkou Township

• Main Authors: Chuen-Jiang Yeh, 葉春江
• Other Authors: Ja-Shen Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/34149068448515850546

碩士 === 元智大學 === 管理研究所 === 96 === With the onset of the rapid aging society, demands for elderly welfare services also grew considerably. The issue of whether the Elders’ Welfare Law setup in 1980 and amended in 1997 is still applicable today needs to be discussed. In recent years, the government has gradually given importance to the elderly welfare services. The various investigations conducted on the elderly welfare services are also comprehensive. Perhaps, the whole picture of services accepted by the elderly in small areas cannot be fully depicted; therefore, the researcher attempts to find out the basic features of the elderly living alone in Taipei County Linkou Township, their knowledge and use of welfare service items based on the present elderly welfare service items. An analysis is further conducted to find out whether there is disparity or correlation among them. The results are then adopted to find out the inadequacies of the present welfare services for the elderly living alone so that more suitable welfare service recommendations can be proposed. The basic features of the elderly living alone, their knowledge and present welfare service item use conditions (including the extent of use and the satisfaction level of use) are found, whether the basic feature variables of the elderly living alone show disparities on the knowledge and, present use conditions of welfare service items (including the extent of use and the satisfaction level of use) is investigated. In addition, whether the knowledge and present use conditions of the welfare service items are correlated is also investigated. The study findings include the potential inadequacies or problems related to welfare service promotions, which shall serve as reference and suggestions during policy promotions. The elderly living alone in Taipei County Linkou Township consist of more number of males than females. Their average age is 77.57 years old who are mostly Mingnan decedents and are Buddhists. Most of them are also illiterates, widowed, and the majority of them receive government subsidies or allowances. In terms of health condones, most of them suffer from chronic diseases and find their daily allowances to be insufficient. Their monthly allowance is about $10,000. Most of them have children and have health insurance or agriculture. (fishery) insurance coverage. When they fall ill, most of them are taken cared by their family members, but are unassisted when doing daily chores. Most of their children visit them from time to time. The majority of them wish to live with their relatives and most of them have interactions with relatives and friends in the community. The elderly living alone population is generally distributed in Chia-Ping Village. The d elderly living alone have better knowledge and use for welfare items that are needed in daily life and have lower qualification restrictions. Relatively speaking, they have less knowledge and use of welfare items that have higher application qualification restrictions. The inadequate information on welfare also affected the users’ knowledge and use of services available. Moreover, the welfare service promotions must be adjusted with time, place, and person in order to receive effective results. To sum up the study findings with “person”, “matter”, “Time”, “place”, and “object” taken into consideration, suggestions of suitable welfare service items for the elderly living alone are as follows: 1. Review welfare service policies and set up suitable welfare policies; 2. Strengthen welfare service item promotions and consolidate neighborhood/village service functions; 3. Improve welfare service application procedures and restrictions to develop care services suitable for the elderly living alone and enhance the use rate of welfare services; 4. Adopt different welfare services for different areas to meet the needs of the elderly living alone in different areas; 5 Strengthen community elderly care service locations in different areas and implement in place aging ideals and strengthen in place medical policies; 6 encourage private groups to provide various welfare services and make good use of voluntary service systems to enhance care and visitation to the elderly living alone, 7. Promote diversified recreational activities for the elderly; 8. The crucial key to the government’s welfare serviced promotion results and the comparison of promotions in different areas; and 9. Understand the actual needs of the elderly to provide substantial welfare services.