The three-child policy has landed, and in addition to the baby's parents, there are obviously the baby's grandmothers, grandfathers, grandfathers, and grandmothers. Whether it is the eldest child, the second child or the third child, who will bring it is a problem. Asking the elderly for help is a must for most young parents. Happiness is happiness, but as they age, the elderly must face the test of declining physical function. At the same time, some elderly people leave home to care for their grandchildren, "migratory bird style", in unfamiliar cities, suffering from life and cultural differences and even language barriers, and their mental health also needs attention.
There is also a group of elderly people, who are at home alone, accompanied by the loneliness and helplessness that come with growing old. Sunset and late autumn, how should they enjoy the beauty of this journey of life——
Grow old with you slowly
Guangming Daily reporter Jiang Yiming
According to statistics, in 2020, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population reached 63.89%, an increase of 14.21 percentage points over 2010, and a large number of young people moved to large cities or economically more developed areas and lived with their elders. At the same time, the family structure is becoming more and more miniaturized, the traditional extended family pension is declining, especially as the parents of the first generation of only children enter the old age, the number of elderly people living alone has also increased rapidly, and their physical and mental health are issues that we need to care about. What are their pension needs? What are the dilemmas? This needs to be answered by the whole society.
At the scene of the Chongyang Festival condolence performance, the elderly in Beijing's Haidian District sang with the actors. Xinhua News Agency
1. "Healthcare facilities should extend nursing services to urban and rural communities"
"Auntie, are you at home?" At 8:00 a.m., the familiar voice made Liu, who lives in Xizhuang Village, Chakhan Wusu Town, Dulan County, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, feel very kind, knowing that it was Zhu Xiaohua of the county's old-age service center who came to visit her. Liu, 68, came back with high blood pressure, difficulty moving his legs, low economic income, and his children were not around. After the Dulan County Civil Affairs Bureau learned about the situation, it helped the elderly to file and handle procedures, which were regularly taken care of by the staff of the Longxing Wisdom Pension Service Center in Ledu District, Dulan County.
"We mainly serve four types of elderly people: low-income insurance, special hardship, 80 years old and over 60 years old preferential care objects, the elderly indoor cleaning, medical care, and cultural entertainment this piece of full power on the service." Zhu Xiaohua, the person in charge of home care, told reporters, "In the village, basically only the elderly are at home, some of them are no longer in their children, most of them go out to work, and they only come back when the farmers are busy." ”
The 2019 "Government Work Report" clearly put forward that "continue to improve the home-based, community-based, institutional supplementary, medical and nursing care combination of old-age service system", community pension such as Dulan County Ledu District Longxing Wisdom Pension Service Center will become an important support body for the future pension. "At present, China's community pension cannot provide full-coverage high welfare treatment for the elderly, and the management institutions and service personnel in some street communities are weak." Li Yeyan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Physical Management of the China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said, "On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the community home care service information platform and promote the construction of a smart community for the elderly; on the other hand, to expand the boundary of medical and nursing care, coordinate the layout of medical and health and pension service resources, and medical institutions should extend nursing services to urban and rural communities, which will be the development direction of community pension in the future." ”
When door-to-door service, Zhu Xiaohua will carry blood pressure monitors, thermometers, blood glucose meters and even portable B ultrasound, electrocardiogram instruments and other medical equipment to measure and record the health of the elderly. "The physiological functions of the elderly in all aspects are declining, and some chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, osteoporosis, etc. Are common, and the accident that the elderly living alone are most worried about is the acute onset of chronic diseases." Li Lei, director of the Department of General Medicine of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, told reporters, "For example, diabetic patients, sudden blood sugar fluctuations may lead to ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar coma and other situations. There are also elderly people who have long suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes, which are important causes of arteriosclerosis. ”
In 2016, the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University established the Department of General Medicine, and Li Lei was transferred from the Department of Geriatrics to the Department of General Medicine, which is a comprehensive medical professional discipline that integrates clinical medicine, preventive medicine, rehabilitation medicine and humanities and social sciences for the community and family.
"Almost all the patients exposed to general medicine are elderly." Li Lei said, "An important purpose of the establishment of general medicine departments in tertiary hospitals is to train more grass-roots general practitioners and improve their clinical diagnosis and treatment capabilities, especially in emergency treatment, chronic disease management, grass-roots collaboration and health clothing." In this way, these common diseases of the elderly can be diagnosed and treated at the grass-roots level or remote online, which greatly alleviates the difficulty of the elderly to seek medical treatment. ”
Volunteers in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, take group photos of the elderly. Xinhua News Agency
2. "You can find a sense of belonging from the collective life"
Ms. Lin, who lives in Datong City, Shanxi Province, was widowed at an early age, and her daughter worked and lived in Guangzhou. When she went through the retirement procedures two years ago, she also had many expectations and plans for her later life, but she did not expect that in the past two years, not only did her hypertension and cervical spondylosis not improve, but her mood was more depressed, and every time she called her daughter, the original intention was to express her thoughts and concern, and finally ended in a quarrel.
"Not only is the body in decline, but the psychological endurance of the elderly is also declining." Among the patients of Li Yihua, chief physician of the Department of Psychology of the Second People's Hospital of Guangdong Province, there are a considerable number of such elderly people living alone: "About a year after retirement is a period of high incidence of adaptive disorders, and the motivation, goal and sense of social value obtained through work gradually disappear with retirement, if you can't get enough emotional links from the family, it is easy to produce anxiety, depression and other emotional problems." ”
Mr. Zheng, 77, has long suffered from insomnia, and his three children are also in the local area. "Father has a bit of a temper, every time he comes to the house for a few days, he will not be very happy, there is really no way, we brothers and sisters discussed finding a nursing home with good conditions, taking care of him, we can often go to see him, but he thinks that we do not want to take care of him before he is sent to a nursing home, the opinion is even greater." Daughter Xiao Zheng always feel helpless in the face of her father, she also told reporters that Mr. Zheng suffered from headaches and chest tightness every three or five times, and let his brothers and sisters take him to the hospital, but each time the results of the examination did not have any physiological problems, which doubled the pressure on himself who was busy at work and had to take care of his children.
"In fact, the root cause of repeatedly letting children accompany themselves to seek medical treatment is that the elderly are extremely empty and lack of care, which arouses the attention and investment of children in this way, but inappropriate emotional expression and venting often destroy emotional relations and cause adverse effects." Li Yihua proposed that the elderly need to face up to the adaptability barriers, actively look for new life and spiritual pillars, such as the establishment and participation of interest groups, song and dance troupes and mutual aid organizations such as universities for the elderly, mutual teaching and mutual learning, finding a sense of belonging from collective life, and finding sustenance from the spiritual world.
Seniors attending a group birthday are ready to taste a birthday cake. Xinhua News Agency
3. "Make every day of your life more meaningful"
"Autumn Garden" is the key word in Ms. Chang's 21-year retirement life: "Autumn is the harvest season, and we Xinxin students study, communicate, cultivate and harvest the fruits of the Tree of Life on campus." ”
In 2006, Guangxi University for the Aged opened a modern literature writing class, where Ms. Chang picked up the hobbies of her youth and signed up for the classical literature basic class, the improvement class, the seminar and the famous book appreciation class in one go. "For 20 years, I have been tirelessly weaving my dream of being a writer day and night, and I believe that by doing what I love, I can exert my enthusiasm and potential to the fullest!" Over the years, she has published nearly 1,000 poems in various newspapers and periodicals, published 4 books, and served as the deputy secretary-general of the Nanning Poetry Society and the president of the Poetry Society of Guangxi University for the Aged.
Ms. Chang is not only obsessed with literary creation, but also hopes to better help others and give back to the society. In 2014, she opened a public welfare children's interest class at home, edited her own teaching materials, and taught traditional Chinese language and literature such as vocal enlightenment and poetry to her and friends' grandchildren, and has taught more than 40 children so far.
Ms. Chang, who lives so busy and colorful, suffers from many chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, emphysema, etc., and has been sent to the hospital for rescue several times. "The most critical one, I was unconscious in the hospital, my family came, and I really thought I couldn't stand it." Ms. Chang recalled, "It was the university of the elderly that lit up my old age, and from retirement to now, I have lived happily for 20 years. Every day I live, I want to make life more meaningful! ”
"The quality of China's elderly population continues to improve, and the proportion of the population with high school education and above is 13.90%, an increase of 4.98 percentage points over 10 years ago." Most of the young elderly have the advantages of knowledge, experience and skills, and have great potential to exert residual heat. Therefore, the length and quality of old age are improving, which is not equivalent to the traditional understanding of old age. Wang Qinchi, a researcher at the Chinese and Development Research Center, said.
Elderly people in the petroleum compound community of Xueyuan Road Street in Beijing watched literary and artistic programs at the event.
The growth of the elderly population will indeed reduce the supply of labor, increase the burden of family pension and the pressure of basic public service supply. But on the other hand, helping them live alone in peace is actually a supporting service for young people to provide a good development environment and solve the worries of officials and entrepreneurs. "The elderly living alone have a huge need to purchase care and nursing services, alleviate loneliness, and solve the huge need for companionship, and the development of the 'silver economy' is conducive to promoting technological innovation and bringing new opportunities for economic development." Wang Qinchi said.
Guangming Daily (11th edition, October 16, 2021)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily