Nursing home says children hardly visit parents to avoid paying fees
SINGAPORE: Abandoning parents may not be common but it is becoming an emerging issue in Singapore.
Five per cent of the elderly at Bright Hill Evergreen Home have not seen their children for some time. The home said the children do not visit so as to avoid paying ward fees.
Ninety per cent of some 140 elderly in the home have children who are unable to support them.
Staff at the nursing home said the children would cite reasons such as being busy with work, being ill or that they are having family problems.
The staff added that the elderly who have not seen their children in a long time are prone to depression, and most refuse treatment.
The home said they usually turn to counselling and games to help the elderly keep their minds off their children.
One elderly at the home said: "My children do not come over to visit me, they never came once."
Tang Yip Chong, head nurse, Bright Hill Evergreen Home, said: "The family normally has to pay (the ward fees) for a long time for the parents to stay in the home. (There is a) burden on them (the children), so after some time, they come (less often) to visit the patients so they can more or less escape paying the ward fees."
— CNA/yt