Taipei City Government

With Taiwan quickly becoming a super-aged society, more than 40,000 families in Taipei employ migrant workers to take care of their elderly or physically/mentally-disabled family members. To help ease these families’ pressure in providing informal care and to know what long-term care services are available, Taipei City has set up the Migrant Caregiver Family Support Hotline at (02) 7703-1977. The service is now running as a pilot project for families in the Zhongshan and Datong districts.
 
In the past, visits to families employing migrant caregivers would focus on the migrant worker’s well-being. For family members, the pressure from managing their caregiver and other long-term care may gradually erode the relationship between the local family and their foreign caregiver and also indirectly affect the care given to the family member in need.
 
A survey conducted by the Ministry of Labor has found that one in five families employing a foreign caregiver is concerned with the quality of the care provided and the caregiver’s adaptation to local and family life. Their heavy burden often leads to deterioration of the employer-employee relationship.
 
Both migrant workers and family members deserve support and relief. If family members are better informed of the long-term care options available to Taipei families, that will ease the burden of the foreign caregiver and the local family alike, which would be a win-win-win for the foreign employee, the employing family, and their elderly or physically or mentally disabled family member in need of care and kindness.
 
A first for Taiwan, the Taipei Migrant Caregiver Family Support Program provides specialized support for families in Zhongshan and Datong districts that employ a foreign caregiver for their family member with care needs.
 
After identifying a family’s source of pressure, these specialists help arrange for additional long-term care on top of the live-in caregiver, such as guidance on managing a migrant caregiver, applying for the Four Care Purses (subsidies for care and services; assisted transportation; assistive devices and home adaptation; informal care relief), and other healthcare and welfare information. They also give emotional support to the migrant caregivers.
 
Early diagnosis of the home situation of a family with care needs and timely support can help prevent the labor relation from deteriorating or even blowing up. With sufficient, good care and a stable labor relationship in place, family members can go out to work with peace of mind.
 
This service has been commissioned to the Jianshun Care Center Foundation, which supports families in the Zhongshan district, Datong district and elsewhere that employs migrant caregivers.
 
Families interested in this service may contact Jianshun at (02) 7703-1977 or follow the Jianshun Foundation’s Facebook page “手牽手at Taipei臉書粉絲頁”. The Taipei City Foreign and Disabled Labor Office’s website at https://fd.gov.taipei/ also offers information (in Chinese).