Synopsis:
In episode 17, Yi Sam Bo retired and spent boring time. After his retirement, Han Jeong-O requested a leave and planned to study abroad. Also,Yeom Sang Su and O Yang Chon received a report that the suspect ran way to the park. While they patrolled the park, Yang Chon found a teenager who was stabbed, and the suspect suddenly stabbed Yang Chon. Sang Su found that Yang Chon was attacking, so he shot the gun at the suspect. However, Yang Chon eventually fainted away, and Sang Su was depressed, so his mother let him quit the job.
Discussion:
In this episode, Yi Sam Bo retired because of his age. After he retired, he spent boring time and missed his job with watching some issues on the media. As shown in this episode, some Koreans’ elderly lives are lonely, and their life satisfaction after retirement may not be happy. This is one of Korean’ social issues, and we, including Korean government, should think of this problem.
In last Tuesday class, Dr. Saeji mentioned about the suicide, and Korean elders have higher rate of suicide because of their lonely lives and low quality of life satisfaction. Cha and Lee find that social supports such as family support, friends support, other significant support bring direct effects on elders lives (2018: 456). Based on this article, the reason is why Korean elders are more likely to commit suicide that their families, friends, or organizations do not really care of them, and they just put elders alone in a rural area with basic support such as giving small amounts of money or food, not interacting emotionally each other. I believe that elders need interaction with others, not just providing basic support.
However, there is an irony because I guess Korean elders are unwilling to get support from their families and friends because they do not want to be burden to their families and friends. For my personal example, my grandmother lives in Daegu, and my family lives in Seoul, so because of long distance, my grandmother does not want my family to come Daegu when she needs to go hospital because she thinks that my parents may be tired to visit there. However, I think although elders do not want to get support, the family should have responsibility to care them.
In particular, Korea does not have well-developed pension systems for elder people yet, so seniors usually face financial difficulty after they retired from their main job (Cho and Lee, 2013: 193). Therefore, to support themselves and their spouse financially, they cannot enjoy their lives after retirement. Instead, they may work with an unstable job, even though they retired from their original job.
The number of elders in Korea is increasing, while the number of babies is decreasing . I think Korean government should consider specific welfare for elders, not just focusing on providing economic welfare.
I ask you guys to consider these questions:
1. Imagine if you were a member of the organization to help elders. How would you help them personally?
2. How can the Korean government improve their welfare for elders to prevent suicide of elders?
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Bibliography:
Cha, Kyung Sook and Lee, Hung Sa. “The effects of ego-resilience, social support, and depression on suicidal ideation among the elderly in South Korea.” Journal of Women & aging 30, no. 5 (2018): 444-59.
Cho, Joonmo, and Ayoung Lee. “Life Satisfaction of the Aged in the Retirement Process: A Comparative Study of South Korea with Germany and Switzerland.” Applied Research in Quality of Life 9, no. 2 (2013): 179-95.
In many societies, elders are often forgotten. In western society, it is common to place an aging parent into a care facility – but even these facilities are not a perfect alternative. I have lived most of my life with at least one grandparent or aging family member in a care facility, such as assisted living or a nursing home. Often, when visiting these places, you see many elders who are never visited by their family. And although these facilities are designed to keep the elderly cared for and busy, depression is extremely common because many individuals spend much time alone. While the hired staff are always quite busy with medical issues and emergencies, I think it would be extremely beneficial to have staff or volunteers dedicated to simply just having conversations with the elders. These people would not be medical staff, but instead, people to start conversations with. At times, when visiting family members, I would sit with other elders at dinner, just to talk to them about whatever they felt like discussing. It really broke my heart to see how many of these elders just needed to talk to someone. In Korea, where assisted living and nursing homes are less common, something like a group of volunteers who visit the local elders in their homes once or twice a week just to chat would be extremely beneficial. I think it is very easy to discredit the thoughts and opinions of elders, and, as many stay in their homes, forget about their existence at all! But programs designated to just visiting and chatting with elders, in my opinion, would help aid in reducing elder depression. (Word Count: 276)
I think Korean government should improve the pension system and have home nurses like Canada. I believe that elders in Canada receive around $1200 monthly which is around 4 times the amount that Korean elders receive in Korea. As of recent OECD status, the poverty rate for elders in Korea are one of the highest is the world. If you compare the amount of pension elders receive for Koreans and Canadians, the elders in Canada would have enough money for food and transportation per month but elders in Korea the amount they receive is utterly low, not nearly enough even if they eat instant noodles 3 meals daily per month. In Canada, there are nurses that visits one’s home to take care the elders and to have a health check up. I think many elders in Canada use this system because they want to stay at their own place rather than going to nursing home. In Korea they do have this system as well, but it is not common because this system could be still fairly new, but mainly it is because of the cost. Most health systems for both young people and old people are expensive but probably it is more expensive of elders. Because the health system being expensive and the amount of pension they receive is low, it is hard for elders to have nurses visit their homes and take care of them and leave no choice to rely on their children even though the elders do not want to put burden on their children. I think if the pension system and the healthcare system becomes better to the point that elders can afford to do everything within their reach, it would help prevent in suicide of elders and reduce the rate of depressions for elders.
It is not easy to live life as a teenager in Korea, but I think it is even more difficult to live life as an elder in Korea. Knowing that their kids have offspring also, many elders often decide to remain unsupported and suffer on their own. If I were the member of an organization helping elders in Korea and I am not in the position to control the funding amounts, I would persuade the person in control of the funding amounts to perhaps raise the funding amounts. Although I may not be able to help the elders financially, I think I may be able to help the elders with their loneliness. Because many elders choose to become isolated because, as So Youn said in her blog post, they do not want to be the burden to their families and friends, it is much likely that those elders will feel lonely and not cared. For that reason, I will spend time and sometimes just talk with the elders. If this is done in consistent time basis, I believe this may become another event that elders may look forward. If I can become the influence to other members of the organization to become a talk-buddy to other elders, that would really make me feel good not only as an agent but also as a human being.
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Hi, thank-you for posting your discussion So Youn!
I’m from another group (DotS), but I hope that I can further the discussion.
The pension system can be often considered a disadvantage for the elderly. South Korea in particular has poor legislation when it comes to helping the elderly or the disabled (point-based systems).
I think it’s important that the government not only invests but normalizes the idea of alternative facilities for elders as it’s becoming a pressing issue when they live alone. Your group members have already touched on how the elderly have issues with their families because they need assistance. There’s this automatic assumption that they’re a burden not only to their family but to society.
In your discussion you’ve pointed out that there’s an alarming high-rate of suicides among the elderly. I feel that mental health is an integral to helping alleviate the certain parts of the issue. For example, if volunteer groups that take time to “hang out” or “chat” with the elderly will lessen the hyper-focus on death being the only solution. I would suggest that if there were volunteer groups that helped elderly folk interact with their peers will be a great release in terms of mental health. It could possibly allow them to share their similar frustrations with family or disability without judgement.
Thank you for the post So Youn.
I personally think that elderly poverty is a big concern in South Korea and also is still an ongoing issue all around the world. Whenever I hear stories about the elderly poverty, suicides, or even simply about the elders, I get really sad or depressed. I personally had a grandmother who lived alone in Korea. Of course, she was not one of the elders who were facing poverty, but she definitely lived alone and had a little connection to the outside world since she had an arthritis and refused to walk around. When I was in Korea, I tried to visit her as much as I could in order to make a tight connection between her and our family, and to make sure that she knows that we are by her side whenever she needed us. However, a month ago, she passed away while sleeping. Unfortunately, she passed away when she was alone, and my parents were the first ones to find out and called the 911 right after. And when the 911 came, they told my parents that they have to contact the police since she was alone when she passed away. It is really sad that we had to let her go by herself and this miserable feeling will stay, would not go away for every family member. I hope not only my family, but also all the Korean families should seek for the better ways to help the elders.
WC:250
Loneliness is one of the few problems that can be solved relatively easier than other problems like sickness or financial difficulty. I think one way to help elders is simply being there. Sitting beside them, talking to them, and eating with them. Solely being together and belonging to a group or society can drastically improve the quality and satisfaction of life for these elders. This seems so easy, yet the expectation of life and society has made one of the most easiest and definite actions the hardest. The busy lifestyle of metropolis and never ending workload in addition to work life stress have caused families to be separated and spend most of their free time devoted to resting and sleeping. While it possible to send money and food during busy working days through the use of online purchasing and swift delivery system, it is difficult and laborious to spend the time to drive and travel to visit parents or elders.
Dear all,
Thank you very much for your honesty and candour, especially to Bomi for sharing such a personal story. You have discussed the systems in use with a lot of attention to detail and constructive suggestions, which as a reader I really appreciate. Really thoughtful and heartfelt discussion.