'Grid system' helps ensure well-being of elderly residents (2)

The 26-year-old holds a master's degree in social work from Renmin University of China and is an assistant with the No 2 grid in the community.

She and her colleagues regularly visit residents, celebrate their birthdays and help them meet daily needs.

Perhaps most important, the visits help bring the elderly mental comfort, she said.

Li Yuanyuan, who joined the community's grid service station in July, said on Sunday that working in the community is different from what she had expected when she had been in college. The social work she has done in the past few months has taught her much, she said.

The system enables the elderly to receive services when needed from a grid service station. When social workers or volunteers bring requests to the stations, those are sent to the service online through a wireless terminal, according to Song Shuxian, Party chief of the Qingshuiyuan community.

The terminal can be used to make phone calls, take photos and report incidents and other information to the community's service center, all actions that can be taken in a very short time.

Most of the volunteers, who regularly visit elderly people who live alone, are members of the Communist Party of China, Song told reporters from China and abroad on Sunday.