Norma Mansor, head of Universiti Malaya’s Social Wellbeing Research Centre, said that while the federal government may lack expertise in effectively providing care services for those in need, the local governments’ close ties with the community could potentially meet this requirement.
“Social services have to be operated at the grassroots level. The local government will know exactly who needs help,” she told FMT.
“In many kampungs, some elderly are left unattended because they don’t have children, or their children are busy with work.
“So if the local government plays a role, they can find social workers to come over and look after them, or at least connect the family with an NGO.
“They can play that coordinating role because our care services network is too fragmented.”
On June 15, women, family and community development minister Nancy Shukri said she would highlight to the education ministry the shortage of professionals in providing care services for individuals with special needs, especially autism.
Nancy said her ministry would study the issue and hold discussions with the education ministry before bringing the matter to the Cabinet, Bernama reported.
Norma also suggested that local governments facilitate NGOs and corporations interested in providing care services to make them more affordable for the public.
She said private care services for children with special needs are expensive, and a low- or middle-income family will struggle to support their child with these services.
She added that local governments can help NGOs or corporations that want to support care services by helping them establish such services and providing professional training.
The government should also ensure that care service workers are paid appropriately and provided with social protection so that the system is sustainable, she said.
Teoh Ai Hua, president of the Malaysian Association of Social Workers, suggested that the federal government incentivise big corporations and NGOs to make care services more affordable.
Teoh said Putrajaya’s role should extend beyond direct care service provisions as the local industry is still developing and often seen as lacking high salaries or job security.
He said this could be done by offering grants to NGOs to reduce their operational costs and encouraging businesses to use their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes to fund social care services.
“If the sector is still not commercially viable, the government will have to take up the responsibility of incentivising corporates to support this type of service as part of their CSR programmes,” he said.