Three members of a family of four in New Taipei died as mummies, and the 86-year-old man accompanied the corpse alone.

(Photographed by reporter Que Jinglun)

[Reporter He Yuhua/New Taipei Report] A family of four lived together in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City. Three of their wives and children died and became mummies for a long time. The 86-year-old demented father thought they were asleep and stayed with them for more than half a year. Members of the Democratic Progressive Party of the New Taipei City Council Zhang Weiqian, Yan Weici, and Zhuo Guanting all called on the city government to pay attention to the shortage of social workers, especially the "dementia community service centers" should be widely deployed.

Zhang Weiqian, a member of Zhonghe District Councilor, pointed out that the existing system is obviously unable to prevent the occurrence of tragedies completely. Assistance is often delayed. In addition to filling the shortage of social workers as soon as possible, the city government should also set up a cross-bureau information integration platform to provide immediate assistance.

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Sanchong and Luzhou District Councilor Yan Weici said that the lonely death of elders is constantly happening in New Taipei. On December 26 last year, New Taipei Mayor Hou Youyi was celebrating the opening of the Rizhao Center, but there were two sad stories of elderly people who lived alone died at home.

In this tragedy, the Social Security Bureau and the Health Bureau should actively intervene and cooperate. The city government should be more proactive and plan a long-term safety net mechanism. The central government subsidizes the construction of a social safety net every year. Hou Youyi should not fill in more and more holes.

City Councilor Zhuo Guanting also pointed out that according to the auditing agency's data, from September 2021 to May 2022, although there are dementia strongholds in all districts of New Taipei City, some areas such as Yingge, Xizhi, Xinzhuang and other districts have dementia. The number of strongholds has not increased but decreased, and in the four administrative districts of Zhonghe, Banqiao, and Xinzhuang, there is only one stronghold with an average of more than 1,000 demented persons.

He called on the city government to increase capacity and improve the current situation of uneven distribution of resources, and Hou Youyi should stop fooling the citizens with empty words such as "do a good job in the Daizhi".