More elderly opt for luxury nursing homes

Thieu has three children, two of whom live abroad and o­ne who works in HCM City and can return o­nly o­nce or twice a year to visit his father.

"My son says that he is quite upset that his circumstances don’t allow him to look after me and he asked whether I would agree to live in a nursing home," said Thieu.

"At first, I was very upset because, like other Vietnamese, I thought that o­nly old people with no children or relatives or those who had been abandoned by their children would live in a nursing home," he said.

"But my neighbour, who moved into a nursing home in Tu Liem District almost three years ago, says he’s okay because everything is taken care of by the nurses there, and he has a lot more friends than when he lived alone."

Luong Thi Vy, 88, of Ha Noi’s Long Bien District, asked her children to send her to a nursing home.

"I had no problems living with my children and grandchildren, but they went to work and to school all day and come home late. I was very lonely and needed someone to talk to," said Vy. "I decided to move into a nursing home so my children wouldn’t have to worry about me and because the nursing home offers full services for the elderly, including medical care."< script>< /script>

Dinh Thi Vai, 85, from the northern province of Ninh Binh, says she was a hypertension patient for years at several hospitals. Her oldest son brought her to the Tu Liem Nursing Home in 2006.

"Here I have been taken care of very carefully. I can ring for a nurse anytime I need a help," Vai said. "I feel healthy and happy, and I don’t worry as much about my condition as I did before. The nurses and staff are all very nice. They greet me and the other residents as friends. Those with serious health problems get special care from the nurses, including baths and spoon-fed meals."

Nguyen Tuan Ngoc, director of the nursing home, said his staff were trained to care for the elderly, from basic medical care to massage and physical therapy.

Vai said that the fees, which range from VND2.8 million to VND5 million per month, were high, but her seven children shared the costs.

The nursing home covers more than 6,000sq.m in Ha Noi’s Tu Liem District and is situated next to Van Tri Pagoda and the orchards of the Tourism Fruit Garden Co. The home itself has its own garden, as well as individual apartments, a clinic, a meeting room and a reading room. It offers 24-hour-care from doctors and nurses.

While nursing homes have become common in other countries, they remain a relatively new concept in Viet Nam, where it is traditional for the elderly to live at home with their children in an extended family.

The Tu Liem centre is also nothing like the homes run by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, which provide a place for elderly who are otherwise homeless. Many of the residents of Tu Liem have come of their own accord, paying for quieter, more peaceful accommodation, where they can tend to flowers and fish in the ponds. They come to make friends with people their own age.< script>< /script>

Tran Thi Na, 71, has children living in Canada. o­nly o­ne of her six children still lives and works in Viet Nam, in the southern province of Vung Tau. Alone in Ha Noi, Na registered to stay at the centre until she dies. Her children, many of whom are quite well-off, make regular trips back to Viet Nam to visit her.

Ha Huu Toan, from Ha Noi’s Tay Ho District, said many retirees were now buying farms in the countryside in Soc Son, Dong Mo and Hoa Lac. He could afford to as well, but he didn’t think he had the energy to look after so much property at his age. So he decided to retire to the centre, which he said was just like a farm.

Pham Gia Duc and his wife are childless, after a wartime injury left Duc unable to father children. The couple sold their flat for VND800 million and put everything into a savings account. They bought a fridge, a motorbike, a tape player, and a TV with them to the centre, and even set up a separate phone line. They now consider the centre their home.

It’s a world away from the hustle and bustle of city life just a few kilometres down the road.