Nursing home: The option for nobody's elderly
Nursing home: The option for nobody's elderly
By Ati Nurbaiti and Rita A. Widiadana
JAKARTA (JP): Suharti, 72, never dreamed that she would spend the last years of life in a nursing home.
She always fancied herself as a happy grandmother living in a comfortable house, surrounded by naughty but cute grandchildren. This dream didn't come true.
When her husband died ten years ago, he left her penniless and completely alone in Jakarta. She has no children.
"My relatives may still live in Purworejo (Central Java), but I don't know how to find them," Suharti said.
She previously worked as a maid and sold 'pisang goreng' (fried bananas), but was forced by her weakening body to give up working. Thanks to a neighbor, she finally found a "home" in a city-owned home for the elderly in Cipayung, East Jakarta.
"I don't know whether I like living here or not, but this is my fate so I have to accept it and enjoy my last years with my new friends," said the tiny and sickly lady.
Hari Ramlan, an officer at the home, explained that most of its inhabitants are found wandering the city streets or are brought in by social workers or neighborhood officials.
"Most of them have no families. I can't remember anyone deliberately sending their aged parents here," Enny assured.
The Cipayung Nursing Home provides shelter, food and clothes. A health service is also available, but medical workers only visit once a month.
The nursing home is located in a complex managed by the City Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Apart from the nursing home, the complex also includes an orphanage for toddlers and an insane asylum.
Compared to other city-owned nursing homes, Cipayung is good. The rooms are quite clean, although four people must share one room. It has also large garden which enable the elderly to take a walk or sit under a shady tree. But the fact that this nursing home is beside an insane asylum is quite frightening.
The Cipayung nursing home currently takes care of about 60 old men and women. This is beyond its real capacity of only 40 inhabitants.
The management spends about Rp 4 million a month on running the place, not enough to meet basic expenses. There is also a shortage of staff. To solve this problem, the stronger residents are encouraged to help cook and wash the dishes, Harry explained.
"They are very happy if we give them responsibility," he added.
A shortage of funds, staff and volunteers is common at most of the 46 city-owned nursing homes, including Cipayung and one in Jelambar Raya, West Jakarta.
Head of the Jelambar Nursing Home on Jl. Jelambar Raya, West Jakarta, Mawardji says managing the home is like managing on a civil servant's low pay. Electricity and water costs of Rp 200,000 are reimbursed only after three months, he said. The municipality only gives each resident Rp 1,000 a day to survive on. Finding extra money is left to the manager.
"I also provide parking for the rich to bring in some more cash," he said.
Contributions
Contributions are always appreciated and don't always come in the form of money. "I appreciate our neighbors, some of them regularly give fruit and cakes to each of the residents," said Mawardji.
"This way we can stretch the Rp 1,000 for emergencies like transportation to Husada Bakti hospital where care is free." Some of the old men and women are also particular and demand luxuries like coffee.
The Jelambar home is being renovated with funds from the city government and a few private contributions. The project will raise the home's capacity to 80 residents, so private rooms have been turned into wards. A new hall and toilets will be built, but make the place better?
One resident commented, "I really liked sleeping in a nice room alone, now I sleep in a barrack with fussy old ladies. Its miserable."
Saliman, an old man, chooses to sleep outside the building on a mat. He said he couldn't stand the noisy women. He was picked up by the city's security and order team when begging in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. "I was a construction worker but I lost my strength," he explained.
Mawardji has only four male staff to help the 30, mainly female, residents. The government has limited the number part- time staff he is allowed to hire so he has found another way.
A few of the women are still strong, he says, and do a bit of paid work.
He plans to get sewing machines for the few who can still sew, and says raising chickens may foster a feeling of appreciation and trust among inhabitants.
He also says that ideally the home should have experts to meet the specific needs of the elderly. "So far I am limited to only taking care of them physically," he said.
"We don't have special menus to suite the condition of different people yet."
Mawardji notes that it isn't economic factors that drive elderly citizens into such homes, but friction at home, "especially with daughters-in-law who only treat the old people well when their husbands are home."
"I don't know if I like it here, I'm new," said Inem, who talks endlessly about her former employer and the children she cared for as a maid.
So far, no one has dumped their parents in the Jelambar home. The residents are sent there by the police, from other homes and from the neighborhood.
"Sometimes there are old people who no longer can pay their rent, and the neighborhood chiefs send them to us without any fees."
The Cipayung and Jelambar nursing homes illustrate the hardship Jakarta's homeless and poor elderly face.
Some of the 72 private institutions in the city provide better facilities. A nursing home run by the Ria Pembangunan Karya Bhakti Foundation is a good example. It is located in Cibubur, East Jakarta.
The Cibubur nursing home is situated in spacious and contoured grounds, an ideal place for the elderly.
"Some of the elderly were sent by their children," said an officer but refused to elaborate.
The home consists of several rooms. Some have private rooms, while others share with their friends. The health facilities are very good. Before being admitted, everyone must undergo a comprehensive medical check-up and residents are usually examined twice a week.
Some inhabitants, walking outside the nursing home, said that they are happy living with people of their same age.
"Sometimes, people have to realize that they should not expect their children to take care of them," said Mirah (not her real name).
She said that she is still strong and healthy and has money, but prefers to live at the home.
"Once or twice a week, the driver takes us to a nearby supermarket to buy our daily needs," she said cheerfully, while hopping into the van for her shopping trip.
Discourage
The government is not likely to add to the number of nursing homes even though the number of old people in need is rising.
"The government will not encourage construction of nursing homes because the concept contradicts Indonesian tradition," Minister of Population Haryono Suyono once said.
This leaves the care of the elderly up to the community and family.
A number of non-profit organizations have been trying to establish a community-based program called Pusaka in some of the city's poorest districts.
The Usaha Mulya Abadi Foundation, for instance, is working hard to improve the living conditions of families in a slum in Kalibaru, North Jakarta.
Mrs. Sanitiyo, chairperson of the foundation, commented that by helping poor families, the program enables the family to care for their old parents.
The foundation provides working capital and adopts foster children. The elderly are given free food, blankets, clothes and medicine.
Every day, the foundation staff and neighborhood volunteers set up a communal kitchen under a tent to provide the elderly with rice, soup and other nutritious food and beverages.
Mrs. Sanityo added that they face a serious problem because the number of senior citizens in the district is increasing.
"There are no statistics because it is a slum where anyone can set up a house any time. It is very difficult for us to provide food and other basic needs for such a large number," she lamented.
She finds it very hard to get the necessary funds and stressed that financial support from both individuals and the government is badly needed.
"Jakarta has many rich people, but they aren't willing to see the extent of poverty around them," she concluded.