时间：2026-09-18     【转载】

据卫福部2022年统计，台湾领有身心障碍证明且鉴定报告载有自闭症之人数为17,987人，自闭症者依程度不同多数依赖父母照顾，形成65岁以上长辈照顾35岁以上心智障碍者的「双老家庭」时，如何共同安老，成为彼此眼前最挂心的事。

打造银发族与自闭症者的友善社区

为了年过40的自闭症儿子郑樵，社团法人中华民国自闭症权益促进会（下称自权会）创会理事长、人称「郑爸」的郑文正，与众多自闭症者家庭共同推动成立「新北市友善住宅公用合作社」，并于林口世大运选手村打造银发族与自闭症者星银共居的「双老家园」友善社区。
目前，双老家园由18户星儿家庭与五户协力家庭组成，主要让这些家庭除了有政府支持系统外，还能有社区邻居的接纳与互助，让星儿（注）拥有安心生活的环境。郑文正分享，曾有位星儿跟他说：「郑爸，你知道为什么我这么快乐吗？因为在这边很安全。」星儿虽然有沟通能力的障碍，但跟你我一样，会因为感受到友善氛围而安心。

不只居住也照护身心

不只住得友善，自权会还在林口郊区租地，运作「安星一亩田」农场，透过耕种、接触土地、动植物疗愈及其他相关课程，让星儿情绪相对稳定，并在自然环境中发展人际关系、创造美好回忆。从事景观设计暨园艺香草治疗师的农场主人吴启源，为星儿设计各种园艺活动，从活动中他观察到，整体氛围波动对星儿的情绪影响甚大。
 透过农事活动帮助星儿抒发情绪与压力。采访当日课程是酵肥升级方程式，教导星儿以咖啡渣制作厚土堆肥，吴启源分享道：「不要小看这件事，对有固着性特质的星儿来说，碰触不熟悉材质是很有挑战的。」部分抗拒碰触咖啡渣的星儿，则练习教导过的蔬菜与香草分类任务，如季节性的地瓜叶、空心菜、芳香万寿菊等，过程中他们都能细工轻柔地完成分类，吴起源自嘲星儿对待菜叶的态度比自己还细心！另外在各方善心人士协助下，引进小量蛋鸡，作为动态疗愈互动课程，期待朝完善小型绿色照护农场进行。

协力家庭从付出中重拾生活重心

有些状况特殊的星儿，例如有妥瑞症共病或智能不足者、常无法克制出现触摸女性或对人吐口水等行为者，被日间照顾机构或托育中心拒收。为了这群星儿，自权会在卫福部补助下，同时于双老家园内推动日间安星方案成立「繁星学苑」，课程融入绘画、烹饪、音乐、肢体律动、农艺等，与外界接触并学习简易技能，同时也让照护者得以喘息。至于为何命名繁星？「因为这群孩子实在很令人烦心啊！」现年74岁的郑爸不但有理想、有行动力、也保有十足幽默感。

而年满65岁且能给予星儿家庭助力的五户协力家庭中，主妇联盟合作社北北福祉委员会前主委陈雪芬与夫婿正是其中之一。她坦言，一开始并不知道如何与自闭症者相处，但经过共居生活后，现在雪芬对于社区中每位星儿的特质与反应都很熟悉，也能因为理解而给予合适的回应。

每周夫妻俩共有32小时，会在繁星学苑带领星儿烹饪与肢体训练等不同课程。「我们规划烹饪课是希望他们能慢慢独立，未来当父母离去时，至少具备自理三餐的能力。」雪芬说。假日到安星一亩田从事农耕，将蔬菜收成分享给星儿家庭是她先生最开心的事，「其实带班结束身体都很疲倦，但做当下能做的事，自己也受惠许多，从中获得的成就与愉悦很难形容。」成为双老家园的协力家庭，让夫妻俩退休生活有了意义与重心。

资源与政策整合　让友善住宅遍地开花

虽然双老家园友善社区为星儿家庭送上一盏微光，但郑爸的理想不仅于此，他表示，这里容纳的家庭数仅占台湾自闭症家庭约千分之一，还必须持续推动其他区域引进社会资源，成立让弱势族群共居互助的友善住宅，甚至发展出台湾社会福利住宅完整的政策与配套。

然而这涉及土地、资金、人力、技术、营运等多重面向，私人组织要推动并不容易，郑爸期盼政府能以释出公地给民间自建或公建公营方式开展。想起采访过程，郑爸曾语气欣喜地说：「郑樵两岁后就不再讲话，但你知道吗？他上周会打字了，而且还是有感情的句子！」真希望未来更多星儿父母，像郑爸一样拥有放心告别的力量。

According to 2022 statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan, China, 17,987 people hold disability certificates whose assessment reports record a diagnosis of autism. Depending on the severity of their condition, most people with autism rely on their parents for care. When this turns into a "dual-aging family" — parents over 65 caring for a child with intellectual disabilities over 35 — how to grow old together becomes the most pressing concern on everyone's mind.

Building a Friendly Community for Seniors and People with Autism

For the sake of his son Cheng Chiao, who is over 40 and autistic, Cheng Wen-cheng — founding chairman of the Autism Rights Promotion Association (hereafter "the Association"), a registered nonprofit association known to everyone as "Papa Cheng" — joined hands with many families of people with autism to establish the New Taipei City Friendly Housing Public Cooperative. At the Linkou Universiade Athletes' Village, they built the "Dual-Aging Home," a friendly community where seniors and people with autism live together as "starry-silver" neighbors.

Today the Dual-Aging Home is made up of 18 families of "star children" and five supporting families (households that are not autism families but join the community to help). The main purpose is to give these families not only the government's support systems but also the acceptance and mutual help of neighbors, so that star children (see note) can live with peace of mind. Cheng Wen-cheng recalls that one star child once told him: "Papa Cheng, do you know why I'm so happy? Because it's safe here." Star children may struggle with communication, but they are just like you and me — they feel at ease when they sense a friendly atmosphere.

Note: "Star child / star children" (xing'er, literally "star") is the affectionate term the Association uses for people with autism.

More Than Housing: Care for Body and Mind

The friendliness is not limited to housing. The Association also rents land on the outskirts of Linkou to run the "Anxing One-Mu Farm." Through farming, contact with the soil, animal- and plant-based therapy, and related courses, star children become relatively more emotionally stable, build relationships in a natural setting, and create happy memories. Farm owner Wu Chi-yuan, a landscape designer and a horticultural and herbal therapist, designs a wide range of gardening activities for the star children. From these activities he has observed that shifts in the overall atmosphere have a huge effect on their emotions.

Farm work helps star children release emotions and stress. On the day of our visit, the class was "The Fermented Fertilizer Upgrade Formula," teaching the star children to make thick-soil compost from coffee grounds. "Don't underestimate this," Wu Chi-yuan says. "For star children with a tendency toward rigidity, touching unfamiliar materials is very challenging." Some star children who resisted touching the coffee grounds practiced the sorting task they had been taught for vegetables and herbs — seasonal sweet potato leaves, water spinach, aromatic marigolds, and so on — and every one of them sorted the leaves carefully and gently. Wu Chi-yuan jokes that the star children treat vegetable leaves more tenderly than he does himself. In addition, with help from kindhearted people on all sides, a small flock of laying hens was brought in for dynamic therapeutic interaction courses, in the hope of developing the farm into a well-rounded small green care farm.

Supporting Families Find Their Center Again Through Giving

Some star children with particular conditions — for example, those with comorbid Tourette syndrome or intellectual disability, or those who cannot stop touching women or spitting at people — have been turned away by day care institutions or daycare centers. For these star children, the Association, with subsidies from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, also set up the "Fanxing Academy" day program at the Dual-Aging Home. Its courses integrate painting, cooking, music, body movement, and horticulture so that participants can engage with the outside world and learn simple skills, while also giving caregivers some respite. Why the name Fanxing (literally "a sky full of stars")? "Because these kids really are a handful!" Papa Cheng, now 74, has ideals, drive — and a full sense of humor.

Among the five supporting families who are over 65 and able to lend a hand to star children's families is Chen Hsueh-fen, former chair of the Beibei (Taipei–New Taipei) Welfare Committee of the Homemakers United Cooperative, together with her husband. She admits that at first she had no idea how to get along with people with autism, but after living together she has come to know each star child's traits and reactions in the community, and can respond appropriately because she understands them.

Every week the couple spends a total of 32 hours at Fanxing Academy, leading courses such as cooking and body training for the star children. "We planned the cooking class hoping they can gradually become independent — so that when their parents are gone, they will at least be able to prepare three meals for themselves," Chen Hsueh-fen says. On weekends they work the fields at Anxing One-Mu Farm, and sharing the vegetable harvest with star children's families is what makes her husband happiest. "Honestly, we're exhausted after every class, but simply doing what we can in the moment has benefited us so much; the sense of achievement and joy is hard to put into words." Becoming a supporting family at the Dual-Aging Home has given the couple's retired life meaning and a center.

Integrating Resources and Policy: Letting Friendly Housing Bloom Everywhere

The Dual-Aging Home friendly community offers star children's families a glimmer of light, but Papa Cheng's vision goes further. He points out that the families housed here account for only about one-thousandth of all autism families in Taiwan, China, and that work must continue to bring social resources into other regions — to create friendly housing where disadvantaged groups can live together and help one another, and eventually to develop a complete policy and support system for social welfare housing in Taiwan, China.

Yet this involves many dimensions — land, funding, manpower, technology, and operations — and it is not easy for a private organization to push forward. Papa Cheng hopes the government will open the way by releasing public land for private self-building, or through public construction and public operation. Recalling the interview, Papa Cheng once said with delight: "Cheng Chiao stopped speaking after he turned two. But do you know? Last week he could type — and they were sentences with feeling!" How I wish that more parents of star children could, like Papa Cheng, have the strength to say goodbye with peace of mind.