Creating an Elderly-Friendly Nation--Wu Yu-chin

To address the problems of an aging society, 38 organizations that serve senior citizens banded together in February 1994 to form the ROC Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly (FWE). Today, the federation has 125 participating member groups.

The organization, which just had its tenth anniversary, can count among its achievements: prompting the completion in 1997 of the first amendments to the Elders' Welfare Law; helping to gain more generous income support for the 160,000 middle- and low-income elderly people; giving comprehensive guidance to unregistered nursing homes from 1998 to 1999; holding an annual nationwide summit for the past five years to provide senior citizens with a forum to voice their concerns; and drafting in 2003 the "Senior Citizens' White Paper" that requested presidential candidates to pledge to support services for the elderly.

The primary driver of the organization's accomplishments is Wu Yu-chin, its general secretary. After taking up her post in 1996, Wu actively sought amendments to legislation related to old people's welfare. She worked her heart out to uphold senior citizens' interests, especially in terms of pensions, healthcare, employment, participation in society, and retirement benefits.

Among the myriad problems that face the elderly, Wu is most pained when senior citizens go missing. Each time her organization gets a call about a missing elderly person, Wu immediately contacts the police, the media, hospitals, and other care facilities. She believes that it is essential to collect information on missing elderly people as quickly as possible.

The FWE started working on missing-persons cases in 1996, prompted by a particularly mysterious disappearance. On Father's Day in 1994, a family named Chen was celebrating in a restaurant when the father got up to go to the restroom. When he didn't return after ten minutes, the family felt something was amiss. They searched the restaurant and nearby streets, but there was no trace of him. The family tried every means to find him, but he had simply vanished.

Moreover, there was no organization responsible for this kind of problem, and neither the local social services nor the police had the manpower to look for Mr. Chen. His daughter, having nowhere else to turn, approached the FWE. Wu Yu-chin was shocked. Slowly she came around to agreeing with a suggestion made by Taipei Bureau of Social Affairs director Chen Chu that the federation take up the responsibility for finding missing elderly persons. In late 1996, it did just that. Since that time, the FWE has expanded this service, providing help to people with learning disabilities, and to the mentally ill as well.

To date, a total of 827 missing person cases reported by family members have been referred to the FWE, as have 838 cases of persons whose identity was unclear, reported by the police or other agencies. Over 500 of the missing persons have been found, and nearly 300 of the unidentified persons have been returned to their relatives. Half of the cases were senior citizens. Sadly, more than 30 of these old people were found dead, indicating that the elderly are especially vulnerable on their own.

To help prevent people going missing and to assist in finding them if they do, in 1998 the FWE launched the "bracelet of love" plan, which Wu is especially proud of.

The "bracelet of love" is an unbreakable identity tag for persons who could go missing. Each bracelet is inscribed with a user number and a dedicated line at the FWE, where each user's personal information is recorded in a computer database. Anyone who comes across a missing person on the street can use the free, 24-hour line to report the person's number, and the service center will immediately notify the family or request assistance from the police.

From the time that the bracelets were put into use, wearers have gone astray 866 times, but the wearer has been recovered without difficulty every single time, Wu explains. It's been a surefire method. Only because most people are still unfamiliar with the service, the number of users is currently less than 4,000-a tenth of the nationwide number of Alzheimer's sufferers.

Mrs. Wang, a 76-year-old resident of Panchiao, Taipei County, is an example of the success of the bracelet of love. When she was young, her memory was excellent, but after the age of 60, she began to develop the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Not only did she often forget to turn off the gas stove, but she also repeatedly lost her bearings when leaving the house and couldn't find her way home again. At first, Mrs. Wang was able to call her children to come pick her up, but eventually she couldn't even remember her home number and was taken by strangers to the police station after losing her way. Only then did her children realize the seriousness of the problem. They took their mother to the FWE to enroll in the bracelet of love program. Since putting on the bracelet, the irrepressible Mrs. Wang has gone missing 15 times so far, but each time her lucky charm has protected her-allowing others to send her safely home again.

Just how is it that Wu Yu-chin, who just turned 40, came to be so dedicated to the FWE? Wu, who was born in Lutsao Rural Township, Chiayi County, has two elder brothers and a younger brother. Her parents held the traditional view that boys were more important than girls, and when Yu-chin was accepted to study in National Chengchi University's philosophy department, they preferred that she take a job in a factory with her cousin. Fortunately, her brother supported her, and she went on to study at the university.

Her freshman year, it turns out, was a momentous time for her in that she chose a career path for herself. Wu, who is an avid reader, lost herself in a biography of Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer's medical service in Africa inspired Wu. "So one can lead a different life," she says. Wu developed an altruistic outlook at that time and decided to change her major to sociology.

In 1996, Wu took over as the secretary general of the FWE and began the great endeavor of trying to create an elderly-friendly nation. For the elderly to enjoy a happy, dignified existence is really her greatest wish.