A group of lifelong friends enjoying themselves at a reunion party in Kuching – all active veteran dancers and retirees. — Photo courtesy of Rose Iwanaga
BY 2028, Sarawak would be officially an ageing state, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM). The population of senior citizens in Sarawak is increasing at a rate of 0.55 per cent each year since 2020, and constitutes 12.6 per cent of the state’s total population.
The current population of senior citizens in the state is 311,600, as at November 2022.
A study undertaken by Felicia Cosmas and Merikan Aren in 2020 at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) entitled ‘The quality of life among the elderly people in Sarawak’ had conducted extensive research had shown that 64.6 per cent of respondents were ‘satisfied’ with their quality of life.
Other pertinent information gleaned was that 61.5 per cent of the respondents were still living with their partners, while the rest were single, widowed or separated.
As for their current overall health, 59.2 per cent were satisfied with their overall health, with 28.5 per cent expressing dissatisfaction with theirs.
Close family bonds and social activities seem to play immensely important roles in the well-being and mental and physical health of the respondents.
It is vital that elderly members of the family are always included in any and all family activities, be they within the household or going out for a meal, an outing or just a car-ride.
Sometimes they may not feel like ‘in the mood’ or are lazy to either dress up or to socialise, but once this gets into ready excuses that are easily accepted by the children, it becomes harder as time goes by to include them in your family activities.
Their lack of social interaction with others will eventually prove to become more and more ‘anti-social’ which will, in turn, make them withdraw further into themselves.
This is more apparent especially after the loss of a lifetime partner: the younger family members must continuously make extra efforts to ensure that the previously active social life of their elders are not suddenly curtailed due to any cessation of social interaction between life-long close friends, which normally happen with the death or health disability of a previously active participating partner or spouse.
Families must do their best to ensure continuity in whatever activities that had been the norm – be it some charitable or welfare work, or being active in a faith be it in church, temple or mosque.
For those whose social lives have included some form of travel or light exercise (line-dancing, gym, tai chi) or coffee-mornings, or simply meeting up for some chit-chats at their favourite coffee shops, all such activities should always be encouraged.
At this stage in life, sudden changes and health issues are bound to become more and more common, and with the right frame of mind, a positive attitude, coupled with healthy diet as well as some forms of light exercises on a regular basis, most of us over the age of seniority should be able to live reasonably healthy lives till our 80s.
The usual advice of moderation comes in useful. At our age, we must be kind to our bodies and not overdo nor expect ourselves to behave, nor indeed indulge ourselves like when we were 35 or even 45.
We need to be extra careful when we do simple chores around the house as well. We can no longer afford to either bang our heads against the cupboard door when it is left open, and neither should we climb stools or chairs to change lightbulbs or to take out a favourite casserole pot from the pantry.
Walking on uneven ground can be perilous too.
It is reckoned that besides that dreaded ‘Big C’ and the organs that usually fail us – heart, kidney and liver – the most common exit known to those above 60 are usually accidental falls and sudden imbalances, or just unexpected trips and other minor mishaps that could just happen in a matter of seconds due to bad eyesight, judgement, or a simple absence of mind.
The other good advice is to keep one’s mental faculties active and to continue to enjoy what you have found a love or passion for since young. If it is music or reading, that is easy enough to continue to indulge yourselves; dancing and movies – yes; socialising, playing cards, mahjong and shopping – why not?
Many of us discovered social media late in life when it had first burst into the scene more than 15 years ago.
There are Facebook and YouTube; there is the internet; there is Tik Tok videos and all the cooking, gardening and travel tips; there is an abundance of new shows, television series and movies on Netflix and other streaming services; and of course, there is Spotify to satisfy the most demanding of music lovers – from classical to rock and pop, jazz, musicals and the opera.
However, please be mindful about NOT forwarding all those fake news and viral video-clips and so-called news that you receive daily on your WhatsApp groups!
Not all of us are blessed to be able to be with our own families and loved ones around us, or us being in their midst, and even no matter how busy their lives are or how numerous our relatives staying with us are, there will always be someone there looking out for us; it’s usually one big happy family.
There are others less fortunate. I recently went to a local nursing home, which had housed about 20 seniors, comprising 17 women and three men – you can tell from this imbalance that women do tend to live a lot longer than men!
Although the standard of the home was good – it was clean, the surrounding environment was nice and green, and the workers appeared to be efficient and hardworking – it was still an extremely sad and distressing state of affairs for me.
Imagine – these are the more fortunate, their families would be paying between RM2,500 and RM4,000 depending on what the facilities are on a monthly basis, yet the feeling of loneliness, emptiness and a forlornness tugs at one’s heartstrings, and there are many more state-run homes for the aged that house hundreds more throughout the country.
“All the lonely people – where do they all belong?” by Beatles (from their hit ‘Eleanor Rigby’) had come to mind.
In a press release from Nov 30, 2022, the Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Sarawak Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah had stated: “As a preparation to face the issue of an ageing society in the state, my ministry will carry out a study titled ‘Research on Preparation for an Ageing Nation: The Profile of an Ageing Issue Affecting the Elderly in Sarawak next year.”
Fatimah also said her ministry was committed to taking care of the welfare of individuals with disabilities (OKU) through the One Stop Outreach Registration Centre to expedite the registration of this community so that they could enjoy various benefits.
She said a total of 44,801 OKUs had been registered under the OKU Information System. Her ministry had also approved the setting-up of four homeless transit centres (TTG): each in Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
In terms of the total welfare benefits channelled by her ministry from January to October 2022, Fatimah said the state government had provided monthly assistance with total expenditure of RM205.5 million to 53,040 beneficiaries.
Let’s hope and pray that our state government will continue to be a caring government towards its fast ageing population in the years to come.
For most of us who can, we should continue to do whatever we can to ensure that there is a good quality of life towards the sunset years of our loved ones and family members.
May God continue to bless them all in their senior years!