Let the "hanging elderly" go downstairs and "grounded"
urban and rural residences, making it difficult for the elderly to travel, adapting to aging, reforming and lacking scientific knowledge Expert advice
● Many elderly people live in old communities, and problems such as poor fitness for aging, travel difficulties, and lack of space for activities have become increasingly prominent. The aging of fitness has been transformed into an urgent "rescue" project
● At present, there are three major problems in my country's aging reform market: First, the society lacks awareness of home aging reform; second, the government and enterprises lack scientific understanding of home aging reform; third, the development of related industries lacks policy support
● The aging-adaptation transformation of residential buildings is only part of the aging-adaptation transformation of infrastructure. A wider area and more levels of aging-adaptation transformation are required to include living communities and urban public facilities.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Intern Li Zhuhong
Zhao Lao lives on the 8th floor of a residential area in Fengtai District, Beijing. He is now 69 years old. He suffers from high blood pressure, rheumatism and other diseases. He is helplessly trapped indoors due to leg and foot inconvenience.
Previously, Zhao Lao accidentally fell at home. Although her body has recovered, she will use her arms to support the wall to borrow force when she walks around the house.
Over time, clear black marks can be seen on the walls of her house.
"You can squat down, it's quite exhausting to stand up." Zhao Lao said, in order not to "troubleshoot" the children, she would basically not go downstairs if nothing happened.
Nowadays, there are more and more "ungrounded old people" like Zhao Lao in cities.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of 2019, my country's population of 60 years and over had reached 253.88 million, accounting for 18.1% of the total population.
Many elderly people live in old communities, and problems such as poor ageability, travel difficulties, and lack of space for activities have become increasingly prominent. The ageing adaptation has become an urgent "rescue" project.
Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other 9 departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Implementation of the Reconstruction Project for the Elderly’s Home Fit and Ageing", clearly proposing to speed up the cultivation of a fair competition, convenient service, and vibrant home aging renovation market, and guide the elderly in need The family undergoes home-suit aging transformation.
Many people in the industry believe that this document officially presses the "start button" for the aging reform industry that is still in its infancy.
However, a recent investigation by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" found that the huge aging reform cake still has various problems "you can't see it and eat it."
Urban and rural housing is not suitable for the elderly
There are problems with home care
At present, influenced by our country's old-age care culture and traditions, most elderly people still choose home care as their first choice.
The current "90-7-3" pension service system goal also verifies this point from the national policy level.
The goal of the "90-7-3" elderly care service system is that 90% of the elderly care for the elderly at home, 7% of the elderly care for the elderly in the community, and 3% of the elderly live in institutions for the elderly.
It can be seen that "home care" plays an important role in Chinese-style care.
However, the current urban and rural housing design in my country generally has the problem of being unsuitable for the old.
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that these problems were mainly concentrated in two aspects: family rooms and community settings.
Rural areas are dominated by bungalows and two-story buildings. Tall buildings are rare. Most of the elderly in these places live on the flat ground of their own houses to avoid the inconvenience of going up and down.
In contrast, a number of communities built in the early stages of urbanization are now in an old state. Many communities do not have elevators installed, making it inconvenient for the elderly to go up and downstairs.
The elder Wang, who lives in a community in Suqian City, Anhui Province, has long lived in the reconstructed first-level garage due to inconvenient legs and feet.
His daughter lives on the fourth floor of the same building, and she usually visits him downstairs.
Only during the New Year will he slowly go upstairs with the support of his family.
As for a batch of newly built communities in recent years, although most of them have installed elevators, it is difficult for some elderly people who are illiterate or have bad eyesight to use elevators.
Mr. Zhang, a resident of a residential area on the South Fourth Ring Road in Beijing, told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that in order to facilitate his father to press the floor button accurately when entering and exiting the stairs, he put a red sticker on the button on the floor where he was on the elevator and told his father to press the red place Yes, I also posted a post-it note next to it explaining the situation and asking others not to tear off the sticker.
In addition, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily noted that although some communities have set up barrier-free ramps at the building steps to allow some elderly people in wheelchairs to go up and down the ramp by themselves, the community facilities still lack further consideration.
The steps that can be seen everywhere in the district are the biggest obstacle to Liu Lao, who lives in Fengtai District, Beijing.
Therefore, apart from shopping and taking out the trash, she basically does not go out, "I was afraid of falling outside, if only there was an armrest."
Public information shows that in 2015, the rate of elderly empty-nest families in my country has reached half. Most elderly couples live alone, but the home facilities have not been updated in time to cope with the deterioration of the elderly's physical functions.
The decoration of most empty nest elderly homes is still set up many years ago, and there is no corresponding transformation of the living room, toilet, kitchen, etc.
For example, some handrails should be placed in the home, non-slip tiles should be replaced in wet and slippery places such as toilets and bathrooms, and some call and alarm facilities can be installed to deal with the sudden risks of the elderly.
The fourth sample survey on the living conditions of the elderly in China’s urban and rural areas shows that 58.7% of the urban and rural elderly believe that housing is not suitable for the elderly, of which 63.2% in rural areas.
More than half of the urban elderly believe that there are three main problems with housing: no calling and alarm facilities, no handrails, and dim lighting.
Other discomfort and old problems include: the toilet or bathroom is not working well, the threshold is tripped or the floor is uneven, and the floor is easy to slip and fall.
Elderly home appliances are relatively scarce
Suitable for old products to be developed
Ageing at home must not only protect the basic living needs of the elderly, but also pay attention to improving the quality of life of the elderly. However, my country's elderly household appliances market is currently relatively blank, and there are not many household appliances suitable for the elderly.
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily visited Chuzhou City, Anhui Province and many large household appliances stores in Beijing, and found that many household appliances are currently smart products, such as smart washing machines, smart sweepers, smart TVs, etc., but these appliances are too much used. Complicated, not only is it not "intelligent" for the elderly to use, it increases the difficulty.
For example, a well-known brand of smart washing machine can operate the washing machine on the App side for washing, dehydrating, drying, single dehydration, appointment and other functions, but the elderly need to work hard to figure out these complicated buttons and functions.
Microwave ovens have also become more "advanced", which can achieve multiple functions such as heating, thawing, grilling, sterilizing, steaming cakes, steaming ribs, etc. However, these buttons are small and the fonts are small, which is inconvenient for the elderly to use and easy to make mistakes.
In the early days, microwave ovens with single functions and few buttons were rarely seen in counters.
A shopping guide in the home appliance area of a shopping mall told a reporter from the Rule of Law: “The current product update iterations are very fast. Products with a single function are not selling well. Many manufacturers have stopped production. In order to gain more benefits, manufacturers will definitely produce those that sell more. Many more profitable products are all kinds of smart home appliances that are popular now."
Lao Liu, who lives in Jiexin Garden, Xianghe Town, Quanjiao County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, recently strongly requested that the 4K ultra-high-definition smart TV at home be replaced, because the page of this TV is colorful after it is turned on, and many keys need to be pressed, no longer like the original Turn on the TV and press the up and down buttons on the remote control to watch the program.
Sometimes there are problems with the network, and Mr. Liu is helpless.
According to the survey, the current target consumer group of smart home appliances in the market is positioned as young and middle-aged people at the forefront of life. Such consumers tend to buy smart products with complete functions and good-looking appearance, and manufacturers have consumption in order to compete for this part. Ability groups have concentrated on the research and development of high-tech intelligent products, and few manufacturers have developed elderly household appliances.
Many seniors interviewed told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that what the seniors need are products suitable for the elderly, not smart products.
Yuan Xin, a professor at the Institute of Population and Development, School of Economics, Nankai University, believes that in the current economic and social development, it is necessary to pay attention to the development of the elderly care industry to ensure the supply of soft products for the elderly and the development of corresponding products suitable for the elderly.
Lack of knowledge and support
There are many problems in adapting to the old
According to "China Population News", there are currently three major problems in my country's aging reform market: First, the society lacks awareness of home aging reform; second, the government and enterprises lack scientific understanding of home aging reform; third, related industries Development lacks policy support.
In recent years, some aging retrofit companies have gradually emerged, but most of them still remain in the increase and improvement of infrastructure, such as adding some anti-skid facilities or installing monitoring and alarms.
In the industry’s view, the ageing transformation should be designed and transformed according to the characteristics and living habits of each elderly person, such as whether the furniture is convenient for the elderly to walk, whether the light is suitable, the temperature is suitable, and whether support is needed when sitting and getting up. Wait, this is a whole set of system transformation design.
As a client, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily consulted some companies that are suitable for aging.
They introduced that most of the current aging-adaptive renovation projects are mainly based on government and elderly care institutions, mainly for floor anti-skid treatment, aging-adaptable furniture, toilets, washrooms, and barrier-free systems.
If you take on individual customers, the economic return is very low, not cost-effective, and they rarely do it.
At the same time, it is necessary to redesign specific plans to adapt to the aging of individual homes. On the one hand, customers are unwilling to pay design fees. On the other hand, if something goes wrong with the personalized design in the future, they may encounter wrangling.
Lu Jiehua, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, believes that most of the costs of remodeling these houses for aging are still borne by the individual family. The empty-nest elderly are not families who have lost only one family. They have children to provide financial support. It is difficult for the government to bear it alone. The level of government financial resources cannot fully incorporate it into the pension fund system.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" found that some places have begun to undergo aging reforms.
In April last year, the Haidian District Government of Beijing invested in the Naner Community as the first pilot project for the aging of old communities in Beijing, and carried out in the aspects of suitable living environment, travel environment, healthy environment, service environment, and respecting social and cultural environment. Upgrading and upgrading.
Nowadays, walking on the main road of the South Second Community, you can see clear and clear signs; entering the garden square, there is an outdoor alarm post. Once the elderly fall or other accidents occur, they can call the police immediately; walk into a residential building Inside, you can see the newly added handrails that are more suitable for the elderly.
It is worth mentioning that the whole community is equipped with handrails wherever there are stairs, whether it is in residential buildings, at the entrance of the building, or in pavilions or convenience stores.
Indoors, the community has carried out age-appropriate renovations to 99 residential houses for seniors over 80 and severely disabled seniors, including anti-skid mats, sensor night lights, continuous handles, bathing chairs and other devices that are convenient for the elderly to take care of themselves; smart devices are also installed , To achieve real-time monitoring of data such as going to bed, habitual movement, toileting, bathing, etc., if there is an abnormality, the family members of the elderly and medical staff can learn about it at the first time.
Changsha is the "first mover" of the home improvement project. In 2018, the "Thousand Households Plan" was implemented to provide free aging reforms for the destitute seniors. It plans to use 5 years to advance in phases and batches, benefiting 1,000 households each year. family.
However, most of the aging reforms are funded by the elderly and children.
According to a report by the Changjiang Daily, a person in charge of a company that started to launch the aging retrofit business around 2016 introduced that the number of orders received has gradually increased in recent years. Through government procurement of services, more than 1,200 elderly households have been About 30% of the aging-adaptive renovation projects for families with disabilities are carried out by the elderly or their families at their own expense.
According to the aging renovation company interviewed, aging renovation projects such as installing handrails, changing squatting toilets to sitting toilets, and replacing three-color ceiling lights are more popular with the elderly. The combined installation cost of handrails, bathing chairs and toilets is about 1,600 yuan.
The top-level design is suitable for old renovation
Both soft and hard environments need to be improved
According to the forecast of the "World Population Outlook 2019" program, by 2025, China's elderly population will reach 300 million people, with an aging rate exceeding 20%, and entering a deeply aging society.
In 2041, China's elderly population will reach 440 million, and the aging rate will jump to 30%, entering a severely aging society.
Yuan Xin pointed out that in the face of such changes in social patterns, we can no longer confine ourselves to the narrow sense of "adaptation to aging". We should discuss the broad sense of "adaptation to aging", that is, the public policies and various ideas of the entire society are all adapted to aging.
In Yuanxin’s view, the aging-adaptation transformation of residential buildings is only part of the aging-adaptation transformation of infrastructure. How to carry out aging-adaptation transformation in a wider area and at more levels requires the integration of living communities and urban public facilities into the aging-adaptation transformation.
Lu Jiehua also believes that the public and the country need to take precautions and make relevant preparations in advance to adapt to aging, not just for the current batch of elderly people, but for more elderly people in the future.
In fact, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, relevant laws and regulations and special planning policies have been promulgated one after another, such as the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Aging Career and Pension System Construction", the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Healthy Aging", and the National Actively responding to the “Medium and Long-term Plan for Population Aging”, etc., are actively trying to design a top-level design for the development trend of an active elderly society.
Yuan Xin pointed out that in terms of the current basic pattern and trend of population urbanization and aging, ageing will be the core value of urban planning in the new era, and it is necessary to actively create a soft environment and construct and transform a hard environment.
The soft environment of urban development needs to be fully adapted to the aging society. This is an important people’s livelihood project involving multiple and complex factors. It should be led by the department in charge of aging work and carried out by multiple departments such as health, education, culture and sports, public security, civil affairs, and transportation. cooperation.
The hard environment of urban construction must truly embody the concept of age-friendliness, and carry out age-appropriate transformation from three aspects: residential areas, living communities, and urban public facilities.
The basic concept of our country’s active response to population aging strategy lies in "development, security, health, harmony, and participation" in an effort to build an elderly-friendly society.
Lu Jiehua believes that the current society in our country is not fully aware of the transformation of the aging of the home. From the individual family to the corporate government, they have not established a complete concept of the transformation of the aging.
At the individual level, people in a few economically developed cities have the idea of renovating their own houses for the elderly. Most people have not planned ahead in advance, and there are obvious urban-rural differences in the transformation of the old age.
A senior practitioner said frankly that in the past few years, since there was no unified national, industry standard, or mandatory standard for adapting to aging in China, most companies could only formulate their own standards or cooperate with industry experts to design relevant standards. This resulted in "one company The phenomenon of “one standard” and uneven product and service quality is becoming more and more prominent.
At the same time, the individual situation of the elderly who have the need for aging reformation is quite different. Therefore, it is also a difficult problem to set a unified standard while leaving room for the personalized operation of the enterprise.
In Lu Jiehua's view, a big standard can be formulated at the national level, but taking into account the economic level of each region, the support conditions of each community, and the aging of the individual, it can be used flexibly at the local level without setting hard standards.
In 2019, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the “Decision on Several Major Issues Concerning Upholding and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics, Promoting the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Ability”. New requirements for the construction of the old-age service system of “combined”.
"In order to give full play to the role of community support for the support of home care, it is necessary to actively promote the hard environment of the community to adapt to aging, increase some aging health equipment and recreational facilities, mobilize the community to participate in the construction of the elderly service center, and set up daily To solve the problem that the elderly are left unattended during the day.” Yuanxin believes that in urban planning, not only should the elderly rely on walking, buses, subways and other transportation methods to be adapted to aging, but also need to protect the elderly For entertainment needs, the recreational and sports facilities in parks and green spaces frequently visited by the elderly should be adapted to the aging, with corresponding barrier-free facilities and rest equipment.