Die-logue: Elderly isolation and the need to talk about death

• Main Author: Lin, Mark
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Family, Life Course, and Society; Social Psychology and Interaction
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lien_research/131; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lien_research/article/1135/viewcontent/die.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the elderly population of Singapore—often manifested as articles about the “silver tsunami” as well as an ageing population’s impact on the economy, workforce and healthcare. However, there are much fewer discussions that touch on how a growing number of people are dying, and how these deaths can pose signifi cant challenges in themselves. At the macro level, the general belief is that an economy can be kept going as long as businesses raise productivity and expand their market presence through “gamechanging” innovations. However, when it comes to addressing a problem like elderly isolation (or inclusion— depending on one’s view of the glass being half-empty or half-full), the solution is less obvious. At least from the way I see it, I am not so sure if we as a society truly understand the nature of this “problem” in the first place.