Beautiful Wrinkles - A Love Story

writeup on the elderly, part ii

2010-09-12T00:01:00.001+08:00

Having taken a look at the demographics of the elderly yesterday, let us go deeper into the concerns and woes of the aged.

PART II: So you say you are troubled – A closer look at the issues faced by the elderly

Elder Abuse

Elder Abuse is a blanket term that refers to harming older adults. It can range from emotional abuse (such as scolding, name-calling, shouting, ignoring, threatening the target and so on) to physical harm, which can come in the form of hitting, confining or giving excessive improper medication to the victim. The victim may also be subject to financial exploitation. For example, the victim’s abusive family members might use his property or money without his permission. In extreme cases, the victim may be driven out of his home or be deprived of his basic needs such as food and clothing.

Elder abuse is committed mostly by family members of the aged. Unfortunately, the elderly may not be able to take effective action due to poor physical conditions and/or low self-esteem. Some of them may even have mental handicaps that impair their judgement, making them easy targets for abuse.

The Family Health and Wellness website lists the following as common signs of elder abuse:

appearing depressed and withdrawn
does not want to spend time away from their family or a caregiver
appears afraid to make their own decisions
appears to be hiding something about a caregiver
Appears to have no spending money
May put off going to the doctor
Appears to have experienced too many household "accidents"

Marital Issues

Those who are married may face marital problems upon reaching old age. Possible causes include physical illnesses, changes in gender roles as well as retirement and financial problems. The reasons differ on a case-by-case basis.

Mental health issues

In general, aged experience slower reaction times and agility than their younger counterparts. Their ability to think clearly and to recall memories becomes diminished as well.

Some of the mental complications that the elderly may face include, but are not limited to, dementia, delirium schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Depression

Depression is a commonly found condition amongst elderly women – the lifetime risk of getting depression in females is around 10% higher than males.

Depression can be resultant of a rapid chain of several personal losses. Some of the medication that the elderly take, such as progesterone and anti-cancer drugs are known to be associated with depression.

Depression can be treated with psychotherapy and anti-depressants, which are often used in conjunction with each other.

Need to learn self-care

Some members of the elderly need to improve their methods of personal health maintenance.

Caregiver Stress

Caregiver stress refers to caregivers experiencing guilt, frustration and/or anger due to their caregiving responsibilities.

More often than not, caregivers giving care to the elderly and/or disabled require the help and support of their family, friends and community. However, studies show that they usually choose to perform their caregiving responsibilities alone. This may increase the caregiver's risk of depression and illness, and/or strain the relationship between the caregiver and the care receiver.

Death and dying, Grief and loss

With the rise of end-of-life issues, the elderly may start to have some concerns and woes regarding death, such as the fear of dying or a sense of remorse and regret if they feel that they did not live life the way they wanted. These concerns may also generate a feeling of grief and loss.

Relationship Issues

The above-mentioned problems faced by the elderly often extend to their loved ones inadvertently , causing strains to their relationship. Such relationship problems can be a culmination of the previous problems, or be the result of misunderstanding between the aged person and his loved ones.

Consider the following example - the maid caring for an aged woman experiences caregiver stress, causing her to vent her anger on the elderly lady on a few occasions, leading to arguments. This, when coupled with other factors, can sour the relationship between the two.

That concludes our two-part writeup on the elderly. We hope that it has given our readers some insight into the problems faced by the elderly.

Writeup on the elderly, part i

2010-09-11T00:00:00.006+08:00

When you are approached by one of our volunteers soliciting for donations, you might pause and wonder – why exactly does O’Joy Care Services need these donations – after all, some people feel that the elderly have the best time of their life. After retirement, they are left to their own devices. They have accumulated vast experience throughout their life and would thus be an invaluable aid to the younger generation. With these good prospects, life should be a breeze and there would be little need for them to be counselled.

But is that really the case? Let us take a look at some statistics about the elderly that will probably change your mind.

PART I : Elderly Numbers – Demographics of the Elderly in Singapore

According to the Statistics Singapore website, 8.8% of the resident population is aged 65 and above. This figure has been on a steady increase since Singapore’s independence in 1965. Back then, the percentage of the elderly was only at 2.5% - an indicator that Singapore’s population is rapidly ageing.

So what is the big deal about the ageing population, you may ask. After all, with increased health benefits and advancements in medical technology, most of us would strive to live longer. But then again, living longer presents its own variety of challenges. When one ages, his body becomes physically weaker and is more prone to sickness. This, when coupled with other factors, leads to a gamut of problems. The blunt reality - 2.5 million members of the elderly worldwide face some form of maltreatment. That is equal to half of the population of Singapore as of 2010!

In 2007, O’Joy Care Services analyzed the situation of the 58 clients who completed their counselling therapy over the year, of which:

- 59% had to deal with relationship issues

- 40% had to deal with grief and loss

- 37% suffered from caregiver stress

- 31% had depression

- 21% need to learn self-care

- 10% had to deal with death and dying

- 6% had mental health issues

- 3% had marital issues

- 3% suffered from elder abuse

From these figures, we can conclude that majority of the clients have emotional issues.

We will take a closer look at the various problems faced by the elderly in tomorrow’s writeup.

A word on caring for the elderly

2010-09-10T16:13:00.005+08:00

Over the past week, we went around collecting comments why it is important to care for the elderly, and how we can go about showing our care for them. These responses come from several teenagers.

Imagine if the elderly you speak of was your parents. That means they have almost past their parenthood years in which they have brought you up till you were old enough to take care of yourselves. Therefore, it is important for us to care for the elderly as through their hardship, the age they have come to is the time for them to relax and in turn for us, the youths to take care of them as they are now worn out and can no longer be willing to do anything without assistance.

Be honest, considerate and polite. In other words, apply basic manners and show appreciation in any way I can convey them. Help them in need, be there for them.

- Nur Atikah bte Musa, 15 years old

They (the elderly) are a valuable asset to society.

I would be filial and helpful to them. Talk to them, play with them and make them feel happy.

- Wisely Ong, 15 years old

The elderly are a valuable asset to Singapore and should be given important care by our younger generations. They are the ones who have taken care of us till our independent life stage. Therefore, we should be willing to take care of the elderly when they are dependent on us. If we don't take care of them, who would?

I would not disrespect them by displaying cruelty to them. Be considerate and show filial piety to them! In fact, spend some time to play with them or talk to them to make them feel elated.

- Mohammed Shareef, 14 years old

The elderly contributed to the country and needs care when they are now older.

I will offer my seat to the elderly in a crowded bus.

Without the elderly's hard work in the past , it's impossible for us to enjoy the wonderful living conditions that we are having now. I can help them on the housework, chat with them to get them out of being bored and spare a thoughts for their feelings.

*Messages have been edited slightly for grammar and do not neccessarily reflect the views of Team Bowenians and O' Joy Care Services.

Updates for the month of September

2010-09-10T16:08:00.000+08:00

The Current, Upcoming and Past Events page has been updated with information and pictures of our concluded events. Click here to take a look at the changes.

With 3 days to the end of the Implementation Phase of the Youth for Causes project, all our fundraising activities have already ended and we are currently working on the Final Report and our Income & Expenditure Statements.

However, two burning questions still remain - why is it important to care for the elderly, and how do you show care for the elderly?

So in our next post, we will be showing you what some teenagers have to say about caring for the elderly.

On top of that, we will also be doing a short series of writeups to take an in-depth look at the problems faced by the elderly over the next 2 days. Initially, our plans were to publish these writeups here on this website during the September holidays but due to several delays, we are only able to relsease the first two parts of the writeup series by the end of the end of the Implementation Phase. Nevertheless, the information contained will give readers a better understanding of the elderly population in Singapore.

As for the remaining parts of the writeup, we will considerreleasing them some time after the Implementation Phase as an extension to our project.

Updates for the Month of August

2010-08-29T15:40:00.001+08:00

Haven't been updating in *cough* quite a while... I mean from the week before the Common Test onwards. Either way, not much has happened since then, apart from an additional round of Street Sales.

We formed a small team of 10 volunteers (divided into 4 groups) a week after the Common Test to solicit donations near the Hougang and Heartland malls to boost our sales.

We are more or less wrapping up our sales already since the Youth for Causes Project's implementation ends on 12th September (the last day of the September holidays), so we will probably continue with a few more school sales before all our fundraising activities stop.

And that's about it for the month of August.

2010-07-25T17:28:00.000+08:00

Here's a little detail that I missed in the previous post - the playing and reading of the songs will be from 12.45pm to 2pm next Friday in the canteen. This means that we should be able to play around 17 to 25 songs throughout the entire programme.

Looking Forward

2010-07-23T21:37:00.001+08:00

Today marks the end of our street sales. Thanks to all volunteers for actively participating in the sales at the three locations. The past 3 sales were no walk in the park and some volunteers got tired from walking along the streets soliciting for donations. To top it up, the elements were against us last Friday as it rained throughout the early afternoon in Ang Mo Kio, somewhat limiting the area we can cover. But we're sure that you guys have done your best to overcome the odds so do take a good break; you deserve your hard-earned rest and CIP hours.

With the street sales behind us, up next on the schedule is the Song Dedications. During recess, we will set up a booth at our 'usual place' where you can dedicate a songs for $1 and if you want a to dedicate a message as well, you can top up $1. The playing of the songs and the reading of messages will be done in the canteen during recess next Friday(30th July). We are fine with most genres of songs as messages, as long as they are not excessively lengthy and are devoid of offensive material. (Try to keep your messages within a maximum of 50 words, though.)

So far, we have already received a few dedications. Do keep them coming in - this is a good chance if you want to recommend a favorite song to our schoolmates or to give a shoutout to your friends and/or teachers.

The Song Dedications will be the last event we will have this month, after which we will take a short break to prepare for the upcoming Common Tests. We will be back in action shortly after the 3 days of tests, whereby we will continue releasing a fresh shcedule of school sales and a few contests.

That being said, we wish you all the best for the Common Tests. We know that some classes will also be having major class tests that will weight the Common Tests not too long from now (such as 3E1 having an A-Maths test next Monday) so all the best to our fellow schoolmates.

Street Sales at Orchard Road

2010-07-21T20:26:00.000+08:00

For those who have yet to read our "Current, Upcoming and Past Events" page, our final street sales will be at Orchard Road in from 2pm to 5pm. In order to provide a wider range of buying options, we will be selling most of items individually instead of the grab bags that we peddled at Ang Mo Kio and Hougang during the past few Fridays. We will be spreading out over more ground than the previous two sales, encompassing the Dhoby Ghaut, Somerset and Orchard areas.

One of the items we want to highlight that we will be selling are the Post-it Pads. They are hand-drawn by our school's aspiring artists and comes in 5 different designs, each with a catchy slogan. Sounds familiar? If you have bought items from our students 2 years ago (via street sales) during Youth for Causes 2008, these pads may ring a bell in your minds. Yes, these pads are back by popular demand.

See you at Orchard Road this coming Friday!

our first street sales

2010-07-09T21:55:00.001+08:00

A warm thanks to all volunteers who have taken time off today afternoon to help out at the street sales. Though the sales was no easy feat, you guys managed to solicit a sizable amount of donations from various locations throughout Hougang, even from the more secluded parts of the neighbourhood. Regardless of the amount you raised, we are sincerely appreciative of your hard work. Enjoy and rest well during this weekend.

See you next week at the next round of street sales at Ang Mo Kio!

A Gentle reminder to all volunteers

2010-07-07T16:23:00.001+08:00

Please be reminded that all volunteers are to meet at the ECA Room 5 tomorrow at 1pm with their consent forms. It is the furthermost room on the top floor of the D&T Block. As we have made certain changes regarding the street sales, there will be a short briefing in the room before the sales commence.

Street Sales!

2010-07-03T19:59:00.001+08:00

How's the first week of Term 3 for you guys? Hope you are getting accustomed to school life.

We have more or less finalized the details of the weekly street sales which will commence next week. Next Friday (9th July 2010), we will be deploying our volunteers at various locations in Hougang from 2pm to 6pm to sell an assortment of stationery and food, which include pens, custom-made Post-it Pads, plastic folders as well as crackers. Most of the items will be sold at $1 apiece. Grab bags at $4 containing some of the above items will also be sold at $4 each.

Our volunteer team comprises members of the school's Service Club and AVA Club who have enthusiastically agreed to volunteer for this sale session.

The mentioned items will also be sold in school on next Tuesday and Thursday (6th & 8th of July) during the recess and lunch breaks. As usual, we will be operating our sales booth near the vending machine and and the canteen sinks. If you are interested in volunteering for our street sales, do visit our booth as well - we are still looking out for Secondary 1-3 students to join us. Volunteers will be awarded additional CIP hours for their efforts. No prior volunteering experience is required.

2010-06-28T17:28:00.000+08:00

The sale of food items in school has begun! For this week, we will be selling bars of Whittaker's Raisin Peanut Slabs at an affordable price of only $0.50!

The sales will be conducted during the various recess breaks and the lunch break at the canteen table near the vending machine. Do check us out and grab a few bars for charity.

A Warm Welcome to Beautiful Wrinkles

2010-06-27T12:17:00.000+08:00

A warm welcome to our newly-opened website. It will be updated regularly with information regarding our upcoming fundraisers, so do bookmark this page and come back regularly to keep yourself in the loop of the progress of our project. Should you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop us an email.

Picking off from the well-received Cross Country Race last month, we will be selling various items within the school during recess and lunch breaks. To top it up, we will also be conducting weekly street sales soon. We are looking out for volunteers who can take some time off their Friday afternoons to peddle items at various locations throughout Singapore.

We will release more information once we have finalized the details of the street sales.