The government said Wednesday it will
launch a 24-hour "patrol" service to help the elderly become more self-reliant by facilitating
in-home nursing care. The service, to get under way with the April 1 start of
the new fiscal year, will be covered by public nursing care insurance. Such
brief help for the elderly, for example lasting five to 10 minutes at a time,
until now has not been covered by the insurance program.
The government also aims to curb the ballooning costs of nursing care by allocating extra funds to
welfare facilities that discharge residents to receive services at home and
to caregivers who offer rehab services to prevent ailments from getting
worse. Services at nursing homes are more costly than those provided at home.
With the launch of the
service, elderly people will be able to receive unlimited medical and nursing
services at any time, even late at night, as well as help with cooking meals
and going to the toilet, at a monthly cost of up to ¥30,000.
The government also decided to raise
the total fee for nursing care services by 1.2 percent to increase wages for
caregivers, the first such amendment
since fiscal 2009. The fees paid by the government to nursing care providers
under the public insurance system are revised every three years.
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VOCABULARY:
1. Self-reliant (adj.) - confident
in your own abilities and able to do things for yourself: not needing help from other people.
Example: Our aim is to
teach our son to become an independent, self-reliant adult.
2. Curb (verb) - to control or limit something in order to prevent it from having
a harmful effect:
Example: The Government should act to curb tax
evasion.
3.
Ballooning (verb) - to
suddenly become larger in amount [= explode]:
Example: The company's debt has ballooned in the past year.
4. Launch
(verb) - to start
something, usually something big or important:
Example: The organization has launched a campaign to
raise $150,000.
5. Amendment
(noun) - a small
change, improvement, or addition that is made to a law or document, or the
process of doing this.
Example: I've made a few last-minute
amendments to the article.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. How should proper
care be given to elderly?
2. Share something
about elderly people in your country.
