It's very saddening, isn't it. My parents are often surprised over the way "western people" seem to dump their parents in homes in their old age. Thai culture is very different in that respect. I've noticed that there's more respect/care for elderly people. It helps that it's one of those (I forget the name, but there is a technical term for it) communities where extended families live together, so they support the elderly and look after them, because there's no government support, unlike here. For example, when my paternal grandparents were both alive, they lived in the same home as my two uncles and their respective wives and grown-up children. It's just normal that everyone lives together in one big happy extended family, even when you do grow up, which is very different from the culture here when kids are dying to get out of home once they reach adulthood!
Even though we weren't all under the same roof, every weekend we were all bundled into the car and driven along the coast to visit elderly relatives. At the time we thought it was boring but looking back on it, it may not be something people do.
When we visited the nursing homes at school and even for work, what got me was how much these people wanted to talk to us and how lonely they were (I remember some research into the high rate of depression in the elderly). I think you are right to say that it is a cultural issue.
P.S. I'm not trying to criticise our (Australian) culture by saying that Thai culture is better or anything (admittedly, Thai culture seems to take the extreme!), but sometimes there are things that one can learn from other cultures and their attitudes to certain issues.
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When we visited the nursing homes at school and even for work, what got me was how much these people wanted to talk to us and how lonely they were (I remember some research into the high rate of depression in the elderly). I think you are right to say that it is a cultural issue.
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