Volunteering at the Veterans Hospital!

Not every old person is a fountain of wisdom but, as a society, western countries generally don't have a lot of respect for older people. I volunteered at the Veterans Hosptial yesterday at around 6 and it was really fun! I started volunteering there since an experience from Red Cross and I must say that everyone ( old and young ) are so sweet and kind. While on my way back from the hospital I started to wonder why USA or any developing country has the need to send their parents or any old member of their family to a nursing/retire home? I mean I know most of the patients at the hospital and most of the time their family doesn't even come to visit! This is very different from the culture in India; in India it is the children's responsibility to take care of their parents, even after they are married, but in some parts of the world some children just put their parents in retire homes! I know that they might be busy doing their job and etc but still! I mean their parents worked so hard to take care of their children but their children don't return the favor when they grow up but instead they send them to nursing homes! This might be the result of different cultural values : India values family a lot and I know that developed nations like the USA are very work oriented but still..I don't understand how a person can do that, I mean I feel horrible if I don't visit the hospital at least once every 2 weeks while some of the patient's family members don't even take care of them. :(