"Senior kindergartens" provide care elderly close to home
5/9/2006 16:51
After combing the 75-year-old granny's hair, Wang Ning brings her her
breakfast. "In Shijiazhuang are your favorite stuffed buns," she
grins.
Everything seems as natural as being at home, except that Wang never
calls Zhang Guifang "mom". In fact, Granny Zhang lives in a nursing house, or
"kindergarten for the elderly" in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's
Hebei Province.
Zhang used to live with her son until he contracted an eye
illness. She didn't want to be a burden on his family, but she didn't want to
move to a rest home faraway either.
She learnt about the nursing home from
her neighbors. Located in her neighborhood, it is only 10 minutes walk from her
home and quite close to her son's workplace.
Her son visits her frequently,
bringing her favorite fruit.
Zhang is not alone. Currently the Mianliu
elderly kindergarten has over 20 permanent residents, in addition to a dozen
more temporary and daytime members.
Cao Yuke founded the nursing house in
October 2005 in "an attempt to help the elderly in a non-secluded
environment".
According to Cao, who had been running rest homes or "elderly
departments" on the outskirts, most seniors feel lonely and unhappy when they
are far from home.
Cao, thinking of her own mom, could understand how
reluctant children are to send their parents away. "Traditional thinking
encourages children to take care of their parents and those who fail to fulfill
the responsibility are seen as unfilial," she notes.
So why not build a
nursing house in the same neighborhood so that elderly people don't have to
uproot themselves?
Cao polled nearly 2,000 elderly people about her idea and,
to her delight, 80 percent welcomed it.
Instead of being left alone at home
by busy children, elderly people can go to a nursing house to play cards or
chat.
Those whose houses are being decorated could live in the nursing house
temporarily.
Many experts and officials have applauded the idea.
"It is a
new form of care for the aged, and meets their wish to be looked after close to
home," said Wu Shuhai, vice director of the welfare department of the Hebei Work
Committee for Senior Citizens.
There are more than 1.1 million aged over 60
in Shijiazhuang, and they account for 12 percent of the city's total
population.
A survey by the Shijiazhuang Bureau of Civil Affairs shows that
only 12 percent of elderly people are happy with the idea of going to a rest
home, which is usually located on the outskirts.
Nationwide, according to Li
Bengong, Chairman of the Chinese Association of Gerontology, there are 142
million Chinese people aged over 60. This is equivalent to the aged population
of the whole of Europe and is 11 percent of China's population. How best to take
care of them has become a big issue.
Hu Yujun, vice director of the civil
affairs bureau of Qiaodong district where the Mianliu nursing house is located,
has decided to promote the idea to other communities.
He also plans to
recruit some "younger senior people" to work in the nursing houses. "They could
open a 'time account'," he said. "When they get older and come to live in the
nursing houses, they can enjoy free service for the period built up in their
time account."
In the Mianliu nursing house, Zhang Guifang hands Wang Ning a
banana. "My son just brought this for me," she smiles at Wang, "I have a good
son, and now a good daughter."
xinhua
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