Luster for the golden years
Print Edition
Chen Xingguang, 78, lives alone on Lanping Road, but his life is no longer lonely.
Since June, he has been going to the new Camphor Home day-care center for seniors in the Jiangchuan community. In addition to a free health check every morning, he watches television, chats with other seniors, listens to Chinese traditional operas and attends social activities. After meals there, he goes back home for the night.
Camphor Home, the first elderly day-care project in the Minhang district, opened its doors in June, providing an activity room and 30 beds for naps.
“I always think these are supposed to be the golden years of life, but I used to feel so lonely, staying at home by myself and facing four walls every day,” said Chen. “The social life at Camphor House makes my life much better than before.”
Jiangchuan also plans to establish up to 10 residential apartment sites for the elderly in the next couple of years as part of a comprehensive new plan announced by Minhang officials last week.
The district is the first in Shanghai to develop a far-reaching, integrated plan to address the needs of a rapidly aging population. Minhang calls the project the Continuing Care Retirement Community.
The district wants to be at the vanguard of implementing the concept of “continuum of care” in Shanghai. The idea is to provide a range of services tailored to specific needs as people move through the last years of their lives.
At the front end are day care centers and elderly apartment complex for those who can get by on their own, with a little community social support. In the middle of the continuum are assisted-care facilities where people receive a higher level of attention and possibly accommodation. And at the far end are acute-care nursing beds for those who need specialized nursing assistance pretty constantly.
Currently there are 8,634 beds for the elderly in Minhang. They will be integrated into the district’s comprehensive plan, Sun Chao, district Party secretary, told an international elderly nursing forum in Minhang on August 20.
Pilot project in the city
When the Minhang pilot project is completed at the end of 2015, it will comprise 10,000 beds for the elderly and residential units for those not yet needing nursing care.
The project, if successful, is expected to be rolled out across Shanghai as part of the city’s efforts to address a rapidly expanding elderly population and a dearth of facilities to serve them.
The Shanghai Gerontological Society said the average life expectancy in the city rose to 82.5 years in 2012. By the end of 2015, the city is expected to have more than 4.3 million people 60 years or older, with about 700,000 of them 80 or older.
“The soaring number of elderly has added to population woes, and some young families cannot take care of their elders at home,” Sun said.
There are currently only about 620 nursing homes with 100,000 beds for the elderly in Shanghai. That means beds available for only 3 percent of the elderly population. Half the homes are privately operated, cost more and have high vacancy rates. Cheaper publicly funded homes, by contrast, have long waiting lists.
In Minhang, construction of residential facilities for the elderly will begin in the Hongqiao area of Huacao Town. They will include 1,000 acute care beds, said Han Yongqiang, director of public information for the Continuing Care Retirement Community project.
“We hope the trial project will be a model for other regions in the city,” said Sun. “The government has the responsibility to take care of the elderly, and this project will combine the strengths of the government, private health-care providers, non-governmental organizations and citizen volunteers.
More senior care facilities
Shanghai plans to add another 20,000 beds in senior care facilities by the end of 2015, with 5,000 of them scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
Almost three-quarters of the new beds will be earmarked for people suffering from mental or physical handicaps, said Ma Yili, director of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.
Another 20 day-care service centers for the elderly will be built by the end of the year, along with another 40 sites serving meals to seniors who live by themselves in residential complexes, said Ma.
“It’s heartening to see the government taking such a strong lead in care for the aging population,” said Wang Zhengxiong, organizer of Camphor Home. “In many cases, elderly people suffer neglect, poverty or lack of services. No matter what the facility, if you can get there yourself and just to be with others your age, then it can indeed be a golden time in life.”
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