Family Social Support for the Elderly Based on Human Capital (Perspective of Symbolic Interactionism in Toraja Families in Makassar City)

Family social support for the elderly in the Toraja community is changing and quality services and human capital-based services are needed. This paper describes the new pattern of family social support for the elderly of Toraja families in Makassar City. Research methods with qualitative case study types were used and data collection was done through interviews and observations. The results showed there are still families providing social support services to the elderly. The change is the Toraja people offering assistance at home but using professional servants to provide maximum service to the elderly. The conclusion of the study is that the improvement in the quality of the socio-economic life of the Toraja community results in less time to provide social support in the form of services to elderly parents. However, the quality of service to these parents did not diminish by presenting professional servants and was agreed explicitly by family members as a substitute for assistance from their children as they are busy working. In other cases, family members have enough time to provide services to elderly parents and get material support from families who are busy working.