This morning I arrived at work and over our coffee break discussed with a fellow colleauge (who is from international waters) the finer points of Australia’s aged care system.
My colleague who we will call Mr H for privacy reasons spoke to me about his studies in the mental health profession, we then moved on to the topic of different cultural differences in aged care as Mr H is from a country where parents raise their children to have a mutual respect for their aged, he was astonished when he first moved to Australia how we as a Nation behave towards ours.
When you are born what do you have? Well most of us have a Mother or a Father am I right, now think about this when you are at the elderly stage in your life you will practically revert back to a child like form not being able to be independent and having others looking after you, imagine that you are 90 and you have no family left everyone you know you have surpassed in years now what do you have, you have the health care system.
However some of us do have family, children as a matter of fact ....haven't you seen recent surveys babies are popping up al over the place in Australia. So why are we so different to say a country such as India, well there are subtle cultural differences for sure but in regards to the aged the children look after their parents when they are elderly, a reverse role if you will, they don't have nursing homes in India because there is no need to hide a family member away from the rest of society.
Just because they think you should have honey instead of sugar in your cup of tea and they occasionally tell your friends about that time you ran around naked on the front lawn you decide it's time someone else took responsibility for them, right.
What has happened to us are we really that selfish Me, Myself and I is that all we really think about now what ever happened to respecting our elders, and when did Australians stop caring?
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