Identifying the Current Trends and Challenges of Ageing Care Centres in Malaysia

Ageing population is increasing all across the globe, including Malaysia, due to better nutrition and healthy living, which ultimately result as an increase in life expectancy and rise of the elderly population. The most important concern is about health and care facilities along with living arrangements of the ageing population. Currently, in Malaysia, 365 ageing care centres are working in various states. However, these centres are not up to mark in place of services and technological equipment. This paper address the issues which elderly care centres management are facing, especially keeping in view the multicultural background of the people residing in Malaysia. This paper highlights the current scenario of elderly care centres in Malaysia and issues about the management of these centres. This study adopts the qualitative research strategy and focus group conducted with 15 Managers, 10 caregivers and 3 experts in the field of Ageing. The findings revealed that the services offered by these centres comprise of Islamic education, training programs, recreation activities and counselling session. Few of the centres just preferred Muslim to be admitted as their strategy based on Islamic values. The issues faced by care centre
management include lack of trained staff, licensing issues, financial constraints, no administrative support, staff retention, lack of technological equipment and less funding.