As the aging of the population accelerates, the pressure on rural elderly care is becoming increasingly prominent: young adults continue to migrate out, and the foundation of traditional family care for the elderly who "raise children for old age" continues to weaken; rural elderly groups have low incomes and have limited ability to purchase market-based elderly care services; professional elderly care institutions are few in number and far away, and many elderly people cannot leave their hometown and are unwilling to live away from home; there is a large gap in home care for the disabled and semi-disabled elderly, and rural professional care is weak...
In addition to the basic "good food and housing", the needs of rural elderly in health protection, spiritual comfort and other aspects cannot be ignored, and there are still shortcomings in corresponding public services.
To solve the problem of rural elderly care, we need more "new solutions" that are down-to-earth, practical, and long-lasting.
Many places have already taken action. Some villages revitalize idle resources such as old school buildings to build "nursing homes at doorsteps" where the elderly dine together and do activities together during the day, and go home to live at night; some villages rely on the social advantages of local acquaintances to explore new models of mutual assistance for the elderly. Younger elders take care of older elders and can use their service time to exchange for daily necessities; there are also local governments that have linked up with village doctors and grid workers to establish health accounts for the elderly, regular door-to-door inspections, and purchase of medicines. Digital tools such as smart pagers and smoke alarms are also gradually "going to the countryside" to facilitate the elderly to seek help in time when they are in trouble.
These new options for elderly care in various forms and with flexible mechanisms have broken the binary choice of rural elderly people either moving to the city to provide for their elderly care or struggling to survive alone. More and more elderly people are enjoying affordable, considerate and dignified elderly care services in a familiar local environment, which also relieves their children from worries.
Relevant departments should continue to optimize the rural elderly care system and service supply, so that these "new solutions" can move from sporadic exploration to normal operation, and from temporary highlights to long-term mechanisms.
Lay a solid foundation for home-based and village-level elderly care. Improve the layout of village-level elderly care service stations, prioritize the renovation of idle collective assets in a low-cost, localized manner, and improve the list of home-based services such as meal assistance, cleaning assistance, bathing assistance, and medical assistance, with a focus on the elderly who are disabled, live alone, and receive minimum living allowances. Deepen the integration of medical care and elderly care, promote the in-depth integration of village clinics and elderly care service points, implement family doctor contract services, promote aging-friendly transformation, and reduce the risk of accidents at home.
Activate more local endogenous power. Standardize and promote rural "time banks" and improve the time storage and exchange system to allow elderly volunteers to enjoy more rights. Guide village collectives, rural virtuous people, and returned youth to participate in the elderly care industry, cultivate a local elderly care team, and retain talents through salary improvements, skills training, job subsidies, etc. We will develop inclusive village-level mutual-aid elderly care according to local conditions, focus on building day care centers in densely populated villages, and focus on mobile door-to-door services in scattered villages.
Introduce new digital intelligent technologies. Continue to promote the "bringing of age-appropriate digital products to the countryside", simplify the operation of smart devices, promote smart terminals such as emergency calls and remote monitoring, and reduce usage costs. Guide young volunteers to carry out digital assistance, guide the elderly in video calls and online registration, so that rural elderly can share the dividends of digital development.
There is no one-size-fits-all standard answer to the livelihood question of rural elderly care, but “allowing the elderly to enjoy their old age in peace” is a constant goal. While weaving a dense rural elderly care security network, we must explore more "new solutions" that are based on rural areas, pragmatic and innovative, so that we can steadily support the happy old age of rural elderly people.
Banyuetan commentators Chen Guofeng and Cong Jiaxin
