The aging population of China dwarfs the numbers of the American senior population and dealing with the problem is the fundamentally the same but on a whole different scale. As part of the country’s recently released its “second Five-Year” plan for pensioners, it highlights some fascinating data. By 2020, Chinese senior citizens will comprise 243 million people in that country and generate 75 billion in revenue for nursing care services which equates to $7.1 million new jobs in the country. The plan outlines various high-level goals that provide a structural foundation based on:
- Home care services, including life care, domestic services, rehabilitation care, medical care, spiritual comfort, the above services as the main form of the door.
- Community Support services are an important support for home care services, with a community day care and home care support for two types of functions, mainly for the time being no one home during the day or unable to care for the elderly to provide services to the community. In the cities, combined with community service facilities, senior citizen facilities to increase network and enhance the community care service capabilities, to create home care service platform. Through the initiative, launched to guide the volunteer activities and the establishment of labor saving system, etc., to mobilize the various groups involved in community care service. Encourage the healthy elderly, elderly services for the elderly young elderly, promote neighborhood support.
- Construction services to the aged focus through the facilities, to achieve its basic old-age services. Focus of pension service facilities, including elderly care facilities and other types of pension institutions. Aged care facilities are mainly disability, semi-disability specific services for older persons, focusing on the following functions:
- life care. Construction of facilities shall comply with accessibility requirements, a subsidiary of function space configuration necessary to meet the old dressing, eating, toileting, bathing, indoor and outdoor mobility and other daily needs.
- rehabilitation care. Have to carry out rehabilitation, nursing and emergency work to deal with the infrastructure and facilities, and equipped with appropriate rehabilitation equipment to help the elderly to some extent, to restore physiological function or slow down the physiological function of recession.
- the emergency rescue. Have the disease for the elderly and other sudden emergency rescue services, emergency response capacity to enable the elderly to receive timely and effective rescue. Aged care facilities should also use its own resources, training and mentoring community care service organizations and personnel, to provide home care services, to achieve demonstration, radiation, leading role.
The plan comes as some legislators in China have proposed new laws to require children to visit / check-in with their parents and pickup medical expenses and provide nursing care. Combine China’s one child policy and the inherent stress associated with senior care and it sounds like a recipe for trouble.
