Calls to Strengthen Community Support
More than 20 elderly individuals over the age of 60 have committed suicide in Fiji within the last 10 months, prompting concerns over the neglect and loneliness faced by the country’s ageing population as families move away or struggle to provide adequate care.
A recent incident involved a 79-year-old woman who lived alone, and had a decent house and all necessities, but, as authorities pointed out, loneliness and isolation can overwhelm even those with comfortable living conditions.
“When children move away, parents get depressed. And more and more, we are receiving cases like that,” Sashi Kiran, Fiji’s Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection said.
The issue is widespread, affecting both urban and rural areas. Kiran said that when they visited the area where the elderly woman had taken her life, they found other older people living alone, unsupported by their children.
“Even yesterday, I had a call from a mother; children are around, but they do not look after her. And even though there is a law where parents can have their children charged for neglect, she said to me, ‘No mother will do that’.
“Parents don’t want to have the children charged or go through criminal courts, so it is very difficult,” Kiran said.
There have been other similar cases of elderly individuals losing hope due to neglect or the absence of family support.
In one earlier incident this year, an elderly couple in Labasa also took their own lives, unwilling to be a burden on others.
“There’s an issue of them not wanting to be dependent on anybody.”
Families are being urged to provide some form of support to their elderly parents, whether through caregiving services or other means.
“We can only plead with the children of the older parents,” Kiran said. “If they have to be away, they can hire caregivers or provide some sort of support for their parents, because parents get lonely and they lack purpose when the children move off and grandchildren move off.”
In another case in Labasa, a daughter left her elderly father at a police station, saying she could no longer take care of him.
“He was living at a police station in Seaqaqa for two weeks before our welfare officers were able to move him to an aged care home,” Kiran said. “We as a society need to do better, whether it’s older people or even smaller children we are seeing neglect. As a society as a whole, I think we need to rethink the values of family and care.”
