Prague, Sept 21 (CTK) – Three quarters of Czechs do not know where to seek help in case they need to care for their old relatives, according to a ppm factum poll the Caritas CR group presented yesterday.
About 67 percent of Czechs think about how and where their parents or grandparents will spend the end of their lives. Most often they fear that the care for them will be psychologically and financially demanding, the poll showed.
More than 60 percent of Czechs wish to grow old at home with the help of their family and assistants, and they want to secure the same to their parents, the poll showed.
“In Czech families, people believe that children should care for their [old] parents,” Anna Matyskova, from Caritas CR, said.
Over 40 percent of the respondents said they would personally care for their parents and another big group said they would assist in caring for them.
Matyskova said one in three Czechs has a family member who needs a third person’s help.
Thirty-five percent of Czechs have either direct or indirect experience with home care for such persons.
“Over 60 percent of Czechs take the care for the elderly as a positive task. Nevertheless, it is embarrassing that more than 20 percent take it negatively…It should be ascertained why,” Caritas CR director Lukas Curylo said.
Matyskova said most Czechs believe that it is good to give up one’s job or cost-intensive hobbies for the sake of caring for a close person.
Curylo said most people want to spend their lives at home, but the reality is different. Children tend to help their parents by visiting them and going shopping for them, but only a low number of children take their parents home. They are afraid that they would be unable to combine the care of the parents with that of their own families.
Most Czechs believe that charity organisations should assist in caring for old people, the poll showed.
These organisations have for a long time been calling for the state to finance social services appropriately.
