China continues to improve community-based elderly care services

Senior residents order a meal at Qingshuiwan community canteen in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Aug. 1, 2024. (Xinhua/Zou Xinyuan)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Faced with population aging, China is bolstering its commitment to providing better services for its senior citizens. These services will ensure their living needs and enable them to better enjoy their golden years.

By the end of last year, the number of people aged 60 and above in China had reached 297 million, accounting for 21.1 percent of the total population.

As most elderly Chinese people prefer to live in their own homes rather than move to nursing homes, the Chinese government is making continuous efforts to ensure that relevant services are accessible in communities.

CONCRETE COMMITMENT

In May 2023, China established a national system detailing a number of basic elderly care services. The system features a list of 16 kinds of services falling into three categories: assistance for people's material needs, daily care and mental well-being.

The system is believed to be particularly necessary for people with difficulties, such as those who live alone, do not live with their children, and are unable to take good care of themselves.

In the first half of 2024, east China's Jiangsu Province included 236,000 senior citizens with special needs in its regular visitation and care mechanism.

"Whenever I have problems, I just make a phone call, and someone will come to my door," said a man with the surname Li, an elderly individual living alone in the city of Nantong in Jiangsu. Li suffers from a physical illness and has difficulty walking around. "The community service workers also ask about my daily life from time to time, just like my family," Li added.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, establishing a basic list of elderly care services is just a first step. In the future, efforts will be made to explore a long-term mechanism for adjusting the list in line with economic and social development and the actual needs of the elderly population.

A medical worker measures blood pressure for a senior resident at a community in Anxiang County of Changde City, central China's Hunan Province, June 21, 2023. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan)

SERVICE AT DOORSTEP

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the Chinese central government is providing financial support for a program to enhance home- and community-based basic elderly care services.

As part of this initiative, 303,600 home-based beds have been renovated for nursing needs, and 535,800 people have received home-based care services.

In 2023, northeast China's Jilin Province had allocated 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars) to support the construction of 102 community-based elderly care service centers and 100 community-based canteens for seniors.

"Now, we have a canteen within the community, which makes it convenient and affordable for the elderly to have meals," said 87-year-old Zhang Ling, who lives with her 89-year-old husband in the city of Hunchun in Jilin.

"The community also organizes regular home visits for health check-ups for us and our needs are well taken care of," she said, expressing great satisfaction with the state of their lives.

ENABLING MEASURES

On Sept. 1, 2023, a new law concerning building a barrier-free living environment, the first in China specializing in this field, came into effect.

The law explicitly stipulates that meeting the needs of senior citizens is a key task and requires a series of measures, including installing elevators in old residential buildings.

In the Longcheng community in south China's Shenzhen, the elevator installation program has seen 395 elevators being installed, benefiting over 30,000 residents.

Such barrier-free facilities enable elderly people to participate better and integrate into social life equally, fully and conveniently.

For 77-year-old Li Xiurong, who lives in the Longcheng community, her long-held hope of not having to use the staircase when going out for a stroll or shopping with her grandson has finally become a reality, with elevators eliminating difficult and potentially dangerous movements up and down the stairs.