Things I have learned
A large portion
of the Malay population is elderly which is an indication of an ageing society.
Life expectancy of people has increased from 71 years in 1970 to 79 years in
2010 and is still rising.[1] These are results of statistics I
read during my research. Furthermore, the percentage of students in Malaysia
has gone up 20% between 1997 and 2002.[2]. In 2040, 25% of the Malaysian
population will be 65 years or older. This means that my “target group" is
growing exponentially.[3] My survey showed that generally,
the elderly have trouble with shopping, cleaning, gardening, and keeping up
with new technologies. Family members, if available, cannot always support
them. This is where my idea of a service to help the elderly generation comes
in. The elderly will not get only a helping hand, but also they will get in
touch with new young people and get rid of possible isolation.
The complete income of 65-69 year olds is roughly RM 23,800.00 a year or less. I consider an enormous reduction of the income with the decrement of age. Malaysians age 80 and above have a total income of RM 19,200.00 per year.[4] With my survey of young people, I found out that most of their grandparents (57.14%) live on their own or in other places (35.71%). Only 7.14% answered that their grandparents live in their parents’ house. 29.63% of them are sustained by their family, 7,41% are sustained by professional care, and 18.52% are sustained by a combination. This is because many of the elderly’s family members are still able to take care of themselves.
The complete income of 65-69 year olds is roughly RM 23,800.00 a year or less. I consider an enormous reduction of the income with the decrement of age. Malaysians age 80 and above have a total income of RM 19,200.00 per year.[4] With my survey of young people, I found out that most of their grandparents (57.14%) live on their own or in other places (35.71%). Only 7.14% answered that their grandparents live in their parents’ house. 29.63% of them are sustained by their family, 7,41% are sustained by professional care, and 18.52% are sustained by a combination. This is because many of the elderly’s family members are still able to take care of themselves.
Online behaviour
When
comparing Malay seniors with for example German seniors, the second group is
ahead in online buying. Only 20% of the Germans age 55 and above do not make
purchases via the web. I also questioned several elderly people and found out
that almost everyone uses the Internet every day, both in Malaysia and in
Germany.
Tasks required 50% of them sometimes need help from other people, but the other half do not yet need help in their everyday lives. The majority of the elderly would allow themselves to be helped by foreigners, but it was stressed that those who help have to be trustworthy.
Tasks that cannot easily be done by the elderly include: working in the garden, cleaning the house, shopping, and buying drinking water, installing new software/hardware, doing complicated downloads, and advanced computer tasks. When they were asked if they would appreciate having a platform where they could search for someone to do certain tasks for them, their responses were overwhelmingly positive. The two surveys clarified that the platform should check the working condition between the elderly and the younger people. Additionally, respondents preferred to stay in contact with their helpers through the conventional telephone and e-mailing.
To sum up, because of the demographical change, there is an enormous need for the elderly to get help as there will not be enough homes for the elderly or nursing staff. If we look at the numbers of the elderly , we can see that the number will only increase in the near future. Furthermore, education is becoming more expensive, especially for students who lack solid incomes. Also the elderly are using the Internet more than ever before and so they are becoming more approachable. So, if we can combine all these assets, I am sure that a helping company like the Socialhands based in Malaysia will be successful in the future. However, it is necessary to start the company as soon as possible because there a potential markets now and it is important to build our public image immediately.
This study proves that individualistic (where the individual is the most important) and collectivistic (where the group is the most important) cultures are “attractive” traits likely to influence their tendencies for offering help toward both the elderly and elderly parents, but with significant country differences among them (e.g. Germany compared to Malaysia).
The experience of helping the elderly, which most of the respondents have, caused them to appreciate the elderly “attractive” traits. In fact, during this course I learned that there is a big difference of treating the elderly between individualist and collectivist cultures. Helping parents might be seen as an obligation in collectivist cultures. In individualist societies it might be seen as rendering help to a member of the in-group. One’s own parents may be part of the in-group and help toward members of this group may not be based on rationality or on cost/benefit analysis. Similarly, in collectivist cultures perhaps help is seen as an obligation, but this requires a further investigation. With the elderly who are not parents, however, “unattractive” traits can prevent respondents from both individualist and collectivist cultures from wanting to help them. While this is in line with the value system of individualist cultures that emphasizes rationality and cost/benefit analysis in social relationships. For collectivist cultures, however it demonstrates a shift away from the traditional values of helping the elderly based on norms and relatedness or on in-group membership. In-group classification in collectivist cultures has a broader membership (e.g., caste, kin, race, tribe, religion, village, nation) compared to individualist cultures, and it appears that the tendency to help or not to help members of this group in collectivist cultures may be based on a hierarchical ordering of its members. In fact, elderly parents appear to be in a higher order of importance than other elderly persons who belong to one’s race, tribe, religion or village.
Personally, I think that future studies should provide respondents with different scenarios. It is likely that while “unattractive” traits could prevent a helping tendency in one situation, they may not in another. Furthermore, it is likely that certain classes of the elderly traits could influence or prevent helping tendencies more than the others. Also the type of help rendered, even though similar, may carry different meanings across cultures. Thus future studies should also consider the nature of help offered. Finally, it does not matter in which culture the elderly live, they are thankful for every help they can get and thus we should provide support to them.
Tasks required 50% of them sometimes need help from other people, but the other half do not yet need help in their everyday lives. The majority of the elderly would allow themselves to be helped by foreigners, but it was stressed that those who help have to be trustworthy.
Tasks that cannot easily be done by the elderly include: working in the garden, cleaning the house, shopping, and buying drinking water, installing new software/hardware, doing complicated downloads, and advanced computer tasks. When they were asked if they would appreciate having a platform where they could search for someone to do certain tasks for them, their responses were overwhelmingly positive. The two surveys clarified that the platform should check the working condition between the elderly and the younger people. Additionally, respondents preferred to stay in contact with their helpers through the conventional telephone and e-mailing.
To sum up, because of the demographical change, there is an enormous need for the elderly to get help as there will not be enough homes for the elderly or nursing staff. If we look at the numbers of the elderly , we can see that the number will only increase in the near future. Furthermore, education is becoming more expensive, especially for students who lack solid incomes. Also the elderly are using the Internet more than ever before and so they are becoming more approachable. So, if we can combine all these assets, I am sure that a helping company like the Socialhands based in Malaysia will be successful in the future. However, it is necessary to start the company as soon as possible because there a potential markets now and it is important to build our public image immediately.
This study proves that individualistic (where the individual is the most important) and collectivistic (where the group is the most important) cultures are “attractive” traits likely to influence their tendencies for offering help toward both the elderly and elderly parents, but with significant country differences among them (e.g. Germany compared to Malaysia).
The experience of helping the elderly, which most of the respondents have, caused them to appreciate the elderly “attractive” traits. In fact, during this course I learned that there is a big difference of treating the elderly between individualist and collectivist cultures. Helping parents might be seen as an obligation in collectivist cultures. In individualist societies it might be seen as rendering help to a member of the in-group. One’s own parents may be part of the in-group and help toward members of this group may not be based on rationality or on cost/benefit analysis. Similarly, in collectivist cultures perhaps help is seen as an obligation, but this requires a further investigation. With the elderly who are not parents, however, “unattractive” traits can prevent respondents from both individualist and collectivist cultures from wanting to help them. While this is in line with the value system of individualist cultures that emphasizes rationality and cost/benefit analysis in social relationships. For collectivist cultures, however it demonstrates a shift away from the traditional values of helping the elderly based on norms and relatedness or on in-group membership. In-group classification in collectivist cultures has a broader membership (e.g., caste, kin, race, tribe, religion, village, nation) compared to individualist cultures, and it appears that the tendency to help or not to help members of this group in collectivist cultures may be based on a hierarchical ordering of its members. In fact, elderly parents appear to be in a higher order of importance than other elderly persons who belong to one’s race, tribe, religion or village.
Personally, I think that future studies should provide respondents with different scenarios. It is likely that while “unattractive” traits could prevent a helping tendency in one situation, they may not in another. Furthermore, it is likely that certain classes of the elderly traits could influence or prevent helping tendencies more than the others. Also the type of help rendered, even though similar, may carry different meanings across cultures. Thus future studies should also consider the nature of help offered. Finally, it does not matter in which culture the elderly live, they are thankful for every help they can get and thus we should provide support to them.
Future considerations
Helping the
elderly by doing business in any of the ten countries in Southeast Asia offers
access to new emerging economies; however, the work can be difficult. With the
policies established by the Malaysian government such as the National Social
Policy, National Welfare Policy, National Policy for the Elderly, National Plan
of Action for Older Persons, I believe that Malaysia is on the right track to
meet the challenges of an ageing population. Nonetheless, the implementation of
those policies must be closely followed to ensure their effectiveness. Although
collaboration between the various agencies and NGOs is formulated at the
highest level, it is crucial that implementation occurs at the grass roots
level. This could avoid the duplication of or under-delivery services and also
optimize the utilization of scarce resources. By doing so, the elderly will be benefited from these
efforts. Additionally, the elderly population is expected to grow in the future
as health care is improving and life expectancy is getting higher. 60% of the
people between the age of 65 and
75 are on social media such as Facebook and Twitter – and this number is
growing. Between 2009 and 2010, the number of people aged 65+ who were using
social media doubled. Therefore, the NGOs will not be able to take care of all
the elderly and there will be still 60+ people who need help.
Developing programmes to retrain the elderly could help to realize the principles of independence, participation, and self-fulfilment which have been widely held in many countries such as the Vienna World Assembly on Ageing and the 2002 Madrid World Assembly. There will always be a need for younger people to help the elderly.
Developing programmes to retrain the elderly could help to realize the principles of independence, participation, and self-fulfilment which have been widely held in many countries such as the Vienna World Assembly on Ageing and the 2002 Madrid World Assembly. There will always be a need for younger people to help the elderly.
Source
[1] URL: http://www.cbs.de/NR/rdonlyres/9F0DEB0A-8529-4951-92B2-1DF29352C75F/0/2011k2b15p15art.pdf
[Access: 2012, April 14th].
[2] URL: http://www.cbs.de/de-DE/menu/themas/onderwijs/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2004/2004-1594-wm.htm
[Access: 2012, April 14th].
[3] URL: http://www.rkw-kompetenzzentrum.de/fileadmin/media/Dokumente/Publikationen/2011_FB_Wifa-Malaysia.pdf [Access: 2012, April 14th].
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI am really impressed with your endeavour with respect to helping the elderly as well as creating job opportunities for the young.
I wish you good luck.
Ghayth