Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 14 Title: Actively respond to the aging of the population, China has clearly improved the health support system for the elderly
Xinhua News Agency reporter Tian Xiaohang
About 190 million elderly people suffer from chronic diseases, and about 40 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people ... The problem of "long life is not healthy" for the elderly in China is prominent. The recently released "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening the Work of Aging in the New Era" emphasizes the integration of a positive concept of aging and the concept of healthy aging into the whole process of economic and social development, and makes clear arrangements for improving the health support system for the elderly.
On December 9, 2021, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference to introduce the relevant situation of the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening the Work on Aging in the New Era" and answer reporters' questions. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Li Xin)
What is Healthy Aging? Wang Jianjun, member of the party group of the National Health Commission and executive deputy director of the National Office on Aging, introduced that this mainly refers to comprehensive and systematic intervention in all factors affecting health from the perspective of the whole process of life, starting from the early stage of life, to create social support and living environment conducive to the health of the elderly, so as to extend healthy life expectancy, maintain the health function of the elderly, and improve the health level of the elderly.
"Healthy aging is an important part of the strategy to promote a healthy China, and it is also an important measure to implement the national strategy of actively responding to the aging of the population." Wang Jianjun said that the opinions through improving the health support system for the elderly, improving the health service and management level of the elderly, strengthening the long-term care services and guarantees for the disabled elderly, and deeply promoting the combination of medical and nursing care, laying a solid foundation for the realization of healthy aging.
The opinions propose to improve the health service and management level of the elderly, strengthen the publicity and education of elderly health knowledge in urban and rural communities, and improve the health literacy of the elderly. Strengthen the early screening, intervention and classification guidance of key chronic diseases in the elderly population, and carry out oral health for the elderly, nutrition improvement for the elderly, prevention and treatment of dementia in the elderly and psychological care actions.
"To improve the level of health services and management for the elderly, more research is needed to understand the laws and characteristics of the health status of the elderly." Wu Jing, director of the Center for The Prevention and Control of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the elderly are often "multi-diseased", so they have diversified health needs; many elderly people are willing or even actively participate in health improvement, which should be actively guided to better play the role of the elderly themselves.
The elderly are "afraid of falling, the second is afraid of choking", and falling is a major type of health problem that hurts the elderly. In addition, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, metabolic diseases and other chronic diseases, as well as mental and psychological diseases, are more common in the elderly.
Wu Jing believes that we should continue to make good use of the platform of the national basic public health service project, do a good job in the health management of the elderly and the health management services for patients with chronic diseases, and gradually include more content that is conducive to maintaining the functional health of the elderly on the basis of exploration in various places; at the same time, vigorously carry out professional, targeted, sustainable and diversified health publicity and promotion activities, and further guide the elderly themselves, families and communities to actively participate in chronic disease management activities.
On November 12, 2021, in the Yangsimiao community of Guoyuan Town, Changsha County, Changsha City, Hunan Province, Liu Min, a medical worker, instructed the elderly at home to take medicine. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Chen Sihan)
The opinions also propose to strengthen the construction of geriatric departments in comprehensive hospitals, and the proportion of geriatric departments in general hospitals at the second level and above will reach more than 60% in 2025.
"The geriatric department of a general hospital is designed to provide diagnosis and treatment services for the elderly in response to the characteristics of the elderly." Wang Haidong, director of the Department of Aging Health of the National Health Commission, said that by the end of 2020, the proportion of geriatric departments in China's second-level and above general hospitals will reach 28%, and there are still shortcomings and weaknesses in the construction of geriatric departments in comprehensive hospitals.
Wang Haidong introduced that the National Health Commission has previously issued guidelines for the construction and management of geriatric medicine departments, making specific provisions on the setting and operation of geriatrics departments, department management, etc., and the next step will be to strengthen training and business guidance to improve the construction level and quality of geriatrics departments.
To do a good job in elderly health services, it is also inseparable from the improvement of the quality and level of geriatric medical talents. Wang Haidong said that this year, China for the first time included geriatric medical talents into the central financial transfer payment health shortage talent training project, the first phase of the national training of more than 3,000 people, the future still need to strengthen the training of geriatrics talents.
In addition, the opinions also make specific arrangements around strengthening long-term care services and guarantees for the disabled elderly, and deeply promoting the integration of medical care and elderly care. Wang Haidong said that the next step is to continue to carry out prevention and intervention actions to reduce the occurrence of disability in the elderly, provide long-term care services for the disabled elderly from home to community to institutions, and carry out the assessment of elderly care needs; take measures to strengthen the agreement cooperation between medical and health institutions and old-age service institutions, implement community medical and nursing integration capacity improvement actions and other measures to promote the integration of medical and nursing care, so as to facilitate the healthy old-age care of the elderly.