The Mutual Aid Happiness Home is the beginning of the happiness of the elderly in rural areas, and all parties should form a joint force to push it to a higher level and make it happier.
● Wang Wei/text
When the grass grows and the warbler flies, in a rural mutual aid and happiness home in Jimsar County, there are frequent laughter and laughter. The old people living here have become the object of envy of everyone.
"Neighborhood relations are like the countryside of the past. The old people all say that they help each other here, chat with each other, and solve each other's knots, and the human touch is very strong.
Since 2014, Jimsar County has explored ways to break through the bottleneck of rural elderly care and build 12 rural mutual aid and happiness homes, so that the local elderly can achieve "never leave the village, leave their relatives, and enjoy happiness in place". Today, there are rural mutual aid and happiness homes in 9 townships and towns in Jimsar County, and they are like capillaries that penetrate deep into the rural fabric and play an increasingly important role.
Not long ago, the fifth batch of typical cases of national rural public services was announced, and the "health + health" rural mutual care model in Jimsar County was selected.
The combination of medical care and elderly care has no worries
73-year-old Wang Cuiying packed up the dishes and chopsticks, picked them up briefly and went out to the recovery room. In the recovery room, many elderly people are already measuring blood pressure and blood sugar. Wang Cuiying shouted: "Doctor Tang, my head is a little stuffy, you measured me if my blood pressure is high." ”
The elderly of the Mutual Aid and Happiness Home in Santai Town, Jimsar County, play a ring toss game in the recovery room. Photo by Wang Wei
"Don't rush, sit down and take your time. Tang Guoyou has been a village doctor in the Yangquanzi Village Clinic of Santai Town, Jimsar County for 7 years, and he comes to the Santai Town Mutual Aid and Happiness Hospital every week to deliver treatment, and he knows all the old people in the hospital.
After taking out the blood pressure monitor and checking it carefully, Tang Guoyou put his mind at ease and said, "There is no problem, remember to take medicine on time, less salt and less oil." ”
"Okay. Wang Cuiying smiled and went back to the house. A few years ago, his wife died, his children were working outside, and Wang Cuiying was left alone at home, and she was sick and lacked someone to take care of her.
In 2014, Santai Town built a Mutual Aid and Happiness House. 75 left-behind, empty-nest, and lonely elderly people over 60 years old who can take care of themselves live together. Wang Cuiying became the first batch of residents of the Happiness House. She smiled and said: "There is a headache and brain fever, a phone doctor will come to the door, no one will accompany me during the day, and I am not afraid that no one will take care of me when I am sick." ”
For the elderly, "medical care for the elderly" is the most realistic pension problem in front of them. At the beginning of promoting the construction of the Mutual Aid and Happiness Home, Jimsar County found that there were problems in the operation of the Mutual Aid and Happiness Home, such as management and medical treatment, especially the elderly who were mostly sick and in urgent need of convenient medical services.
"Allowing the village clinic to 'live' in the happiness home is one of the most important measures, and it is also an exploration of the integration of medical care and elderly care in rural areas. Chen Zihan, deputy director of the Jimsar County Civil Affairs Bureau, said that up to now, the county's 12 mutual aid and happiness homes have joined hands with the village clinic to lay the foundation for the county's medical and elderly care.
From more than a dozen villagers huddling together for warmth to expanding the scale of building township mutual aid and happiness homes, from townhouse bungalows to independent compounds, from improving hardware equipment to enriching public services...... Jimsar County continues to make additions on the basis of solving the problem of rural pension, and the quality of pension services has gradually improved, and more and more elderly people have a happy paradise.
Resident self-government: The elderly have something to rely on and do something
In 2018, 72-year-old Li began to get together with his old neighbors in the same village to "huddle" for the elderly. Last year, Li became the president of the Beiting Town Mutual Aid and Happiness Institute under the election of everyone.
"Lao Li, buy me some medicine. Chen Xiaozhong, 88, said to Li with a pill box in his hand. Li Cheng agreed, put the medicine box in his pocket, and said with a smile that the dean should do a good job in fire safety precautions, organize environmental sanitation cleanup, mediate neighborhood disputes, and run errands for the elderly to buy medicine, electricity, and water.
Since 2016, the Beiting Town Mutual Aid and Happiness Institute has been built in two phases, with an investment of 9.5 million yuan in Xinjiang aid funds, covering an area of 20 acres, supporting libraries, training rooms, rehabilitation rooms, etc., providing operating costs through special government funds, without full-time service personnel, and implementing the autonomy of the residents, 67 households and 96 elderly people are happy.
Resident autonomy, that is, "the affairs of the elderly are managed by the elderly".
"The hospital committee is basically old party members and old cadres in the village, and the big and small things in the hospital are discussed and handled, and the old people regard this place as their home, and they rush to do any work. Li said.
In order to effectively manage the Mutual Aid and Happiness Homes, in 2020, Jimsar County specially issued the Management Measures for the Mutual Aid and Happiness Homes to provide institutional guarantees for the standardized management of the Mutual Aid Homes. Rural areas need a low-cost old-age service model that is both inclusive and adaptable, and mutual aid for the elderly has the characteristics of flexible form and low cost, which has received more extensive attention.
"The young and healthy elderly in rural areas have potential and are a resource, they can take care of the elderly in need and feel 'needed' and their own value. In this way, the elderly who help others can achieve 'something', and the elderly who are helped can achieve 'dependence', and the supply and demand sides can be linked. Chen Zihan said.
Rural mutual pension also has a positive effect and impact on rural governance. Chen Zihan said: "While inheriting the local culture, mutual aid for the elderly has realized the civilized rural style of neighborhood watch and mutual help, which makes rural governance more warm, effectively stimulates the enthusiasm of villagers to participate in services, and stimulates the vitality and enthusiasm of rural governance." ”
A multi-pronged approach to protect happiness
There are two staff members in the Ergong Town Center Mutual Aid and Happiness Home, and the director is Zhao Wanquan, a cadre of the town government, who walks from house to house every day as soon as he goes to work, asking the elderly about their physical condition and needs.
"There are 158 people in 108 households in our Happy Home, all of whom are my elder brothers and sisters, and I am happy to do things for them. Zhao Wanquan said.
The Mutual Aid Happiness House also helps to form an atmosphere of respect and love for the elderly in society.
"Since the establishment of the Mutual Aid and Happiness House, volunteer service teams such as 'Jilai Social Worker' and 'Beiting Rose Caring Mother' have regularly visited the elderly, donated money and materials, and carried out more than 100 volunteer service activities. Chen Zihan said.
Zhu Xulong, the village doctor of the Tougongjie Village Clinic of Ergong Town, Jimsar County, provided free consultation for the elderly in the Mutual Aid and Happiness Home in the center of Ergong Town. Photo by Wang Wei
"There are more than 6,000 permanent residents in Ergong Town, half of whom are elderly, and 50 people have signed up to live in the Happiness House, but we can't meet their needs. Zhao Wanquan said.
"The core of making more elderly people enjoy rural public services is the issue of financing. Zhao Wanquan believes that in addition to the strong support of the government, the elderly living in the happiness home should also make some efforts, and social capital should also be encouraged to participate.
In 2024, the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jimsar County will actively strive for 4.5 million yuan of Xiamen City's Xinjiang aid funds to build the second phase of the Laotai Township Mutual Aid and Happiness Hospital. After the completion of the project, there will be 13 rural mutual aid and happiness compounds in the county, with 1,200 elderly care beds.
"We will further strengthen the management of the hospital committee, expand the function of elderly care services, strengthen meal assistance, medical assistance, cleaning assistance and age-appropriate transformation, enrich the spiritual life of the elderly, effectively link and integrate social resources such as social workers and volunteers in the jurisdiction, and form a mutual assistance pension model of 'government-led, democratic management, self-protection, mutual assistance services, and social participation'. Chen Zihan said that the Mutual Aid Happiness Home is the beginning of the happiness of the elderly in rural areas, and all parties should form a joint force to promote it to a higher level and make it more happy.