A 'time bank' system can ease burden of eldercare

My wife and I stayed at a German friend's home in Karlsruhe several years ago. Our friend was in his late 70s and bed-ridden due to thrombosis, and therefore needed attentive care. During our weeklong stay, we noticed that each day between four to five visitors would come to help him take a shower and shave, feed him, massage his limbs or do the necessary exercise with the support of equipment.

In a country where labor is costly, it could cost the family a fortune to hire so many helping hands. "They are paid either by the medical insurance company or the 'time bank'," his wife told us.

The time bank concept is said to have been proposed by a Japanese scholar nearly a century ago. The time bank model allows people who are young and capable to "deposit time in hours" in a virtual bank by providing voluntary services for community members, and use their "time deposit" when they grow old and need help.