Overcoming the 'paralyzed family' trap
New insurance program aims to solve problem of care for elderly disabled people
Human toll
Chen Lixiu, 52, a single mother from Dong'an county in Hunan province, knows that trade-off intimately. Her 76-year-old mother suffered a severe stroke in March and is now unable to speak, swallow, or move. Doctors said only conservative treatment is possible.
For two months, Chen has slept next to her mother, providing 24-hour care with no relief. Her father, nearly 80, is too frail to help. Her siblings have their own problems to deal with: one brother supports six people on a single salary, including his disabled son; one sister cares for her disabled husband; while another sister works away from home.
"I haven't gone back to my job," Chen said. "I was supposed to return after the May Day holiday. Now I have no income."
The physical toll is high. Chen must turn her mother every two hours to prevent bedsores — "a laborious job, and I'm not strong".
She prepares liquid food that is administered through a tube, worries about nutrition and choking, and cleans up urine and fecal matter multiple times a day. Her mother cannot tell her when she is hungry, thirsty, or in pain. "You just guess. You watch closely. It breaks your heart," Chen said.
Her brother pays for the medicine and supplies, which exceed 1,000 yuan per month. He has suggested stopping treatment, as the family can no longer afford it. However, Chen and her father refuse to give up although she sees no way out of the predicament.
"If I don't work, I have no income. With no income, I cannot sustain this long-term care," she said. "And I cannot keep burdening my son, who just started working and still has debts from our government-assisted housing."
Chen said she would welcome a professional carer at an affordable price, ideally providing home-based services so her father can see his wife every day.
"Long-term care insurance would solve two things: the caregiver problem — because most rural children of the elderly are working far away — and the financial pressure. With professional help and some reimbursement, we could work and the elderly would get proper care," she said.
