The Resilience Strategies of the Elderly Living in Villages; How Does the Government Contribute to their Well-being and Livelihood?

Abstract

The physical and psychological infirmities have prevented the elderly to work productively. However, under such conditions, in some villages in Indonesia, many of them are forced to work to feed themselves. This research aimed to investigate the elderly resilience strategies to support their well-being and how the government contributes to their livelihood. As the research focused on the elderly real-life experiences, qualitative research was conducted with phenomenology as the research approach. To collect the data, three research instruments were utilized: survey, interview, and observation toward 20 elder people from Bantarjati village, Bogor, West Java. The survey was utilized to collect the data of the 20 participants while the interview was employed to gain in-depth information about the participants' life and their resilience.The observation was conducted to confirm and check the data validity. To analyses the survival aspects, Li and Ow's (2021) four constructs: personal strength, meaning and purpose of life, family support, and social support were used, and Miles & Huberman's model for the data analysis. The research found that family and social supports were the main factors to sustain the elderly survival. The elderly resilience strategies were living with their families and strengthening relationships and ties with their social milieu. This study also revealed that the government's contribution to support the elderly was nonexistence; They only provided healthcare and social security agency facilities to the 10 participants. The research concluded that families and relatives' supports and social relationships were the two aspects that became vital factors to the well-being and survival of the elderly.