Japan is a country of longevity, but as the elderly population grows, so does the number of elderly people with dementia. Elderly people with dementia often wander off alone, and many have accidents outside, placing a heavy financial burden on their families.

        Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported on 30 November that, to address this problem, the city of Yamato in Kanagawa Prefecture, which has a large elderly population, recently launched an elderly care benefit that buys accident insurance costing 2,000 yen a year for elderly people with dementia. The Kobe area, meanwhile, allocates an annual budget as an allowance for wandering elderly people, covering compensation payments for some of them.

        In 2007, an accident occurred in Japan's Kobe area in which an elderly person with dementia wandered onto railway tracks: a 91-year-old entered the tracks and not only lost his life, but his family also faced claims for tens of millions of yen. The lawsuit dragged on for a long time, and eventually the railway company agreed to reduce the compensation to 7.2 million yen (about 425,000 yuan), but the accident and the subsequent negotiations dealt a huge blow to the family.

        Japanese media reported that, following the Kobe accident, some Japanese prefectures with large elderly populations began to pay attention to the issue of compensation involving elderly people. Yamato City in Kanagawa Prefecture has 8,600 elderly people with dementia, and 32 railway crossings in the area are open crossings, so accidents involving elderly people entering the tracks occur frequently. When discussing countermeasures with the railway company, the city decided to buy insurance to guard against the unexpected.

        Yamato has an organisation dedicated to caring for elderly people with dementia called the "Wandering Elderly SOS Liaison Station". According to the organisation's reports, elderly people with dementia are prone to wandering. The organisation's head said: "In this area, there is an open railway crossing every fifteen minutes' walk, so the probability of an elderly person entering the tracks is high. There was an elderly couple in which the husband cared for his wife, who has dementia. One day he went out and came home to find his wife missing. The liaison station helped search for her, and she was eventually found standing beside the railway tracks."

        According to Japanese government statistics, Japan currently has 5.25 million elderly people with dementia. As Japanese society ages, that number could rise to 7.3 million by 2025. Japanese police have also recently found that cases of wandering elderly people are increasing.

        In 2016, Japanese families filed 15,432 police reports searching for elderly people with dementia, and 191 of them remain missing. Surveys show that families with elderly members who have dementia worry most about their loved ones wandering off alone and having an accident. In addition, Japanese investigations into accidents involving elderly people with dementia have found that, if these families are not vigilant, fires can also easily break out. Japan's elderly all live on pensions, and it is impossible for them to bear a huge compensation payment. Encouraging insurance coverage is therefore a policy the government is actively promoting.

        In the 1980s, 43% of dementia patients in Japanese society were cared for by their daughters-in-law. But by 2012, that ratio had plummeted to 7%, replaced by "elderly caring for the elderly", in which aged people look after one another. Caregivers are physically and mentally vulnerable themselves, which also more easily triggers unexpected problems and accidents involving the elderly.

        Mitsuru Kubota, a professor of welfare studies at Kobe University in Japan, pointed out that as Japan moves towards an ageing society, many unforeseen accidents will happen to the elderly. Providing them with a sound insurance system is a good thing, but it is also important to avoid letting the general public view the elderly as "dangerous" people who cause accidents. (Intern editor: Zhou Simin; Reviewer: Tian Ruizhe)

Source: Huanqiu.com 2017-11-30