After the explosion in the boiler room three years ago, 66-year-old Liu Jinsheng was physically disabled. He was bedridden all year round and hadn't bathed for three years.
With the help of the bath assistant, he lay on the bath bed and scrubbed beautifully once.
That afternoon, he slept for a long time and woke up very refreshed.
In the crowded outpatient hall, Chen Guizhi spoke an incomprehensible Shandong dialect, tugged at her husband's arm, and looked around blankly.
The two old people handed over a thick stack of case materials to the accompanying doctor, who passed through the crowd neatly, lined up, took a number, greeted the two old people, and accompanied them to complete the consultation.
88-year-old Wang Meiyun had to rely on a rope to get up because of a herniated disc in her waist. She fell repeatedly in the home she was most familiar with.
Consultants who do aging renovations have brought handrails with different functions.
These appliances will help her resist the decline in bodily functions caused by aging, allowing her to walk around the room with peace of mind.
Bath aids, accompanying clinics, and aging-appropriate renovations are all emerging pension industries in recent years.
Jia Qiuran, who is engaged in aging-appropriate transformation, is a mediation consultant.
In 2018, when she was looking for a job after graduating from university, the entire job fair at the school was occupied by nursing homes, and nursing companies only accounted for 23%.
For a long time, she introduced her work to the people around her, but they didn’t even know what aging is. “Since the third year, the situation has changed, and more and more people understand our work.”
Wang Baolin, a professor of the Department of Management Science and Engineering at the School of Business of Renmin University of China, continues to pay attention to the elderly care industry.
He found that in the past, most families with many children could solve the problem of providing for the elderly within the family. Now, the first batch of parents of only children are entering old age, and the model of providing for the elderly has undergone significant changes. Market-based providing for the elderly is becoming an effective supplement to the government's providing for the elderly.
On the other hand, with the development of the economy, the phenomenon that the elderly are unwilling to spend money and reluctant to spend money has also changed.
Wang Baolin said that for the market-oriented elderly care industry, the government should provide more policy preferences for enterprises, so that practitioners can gain more respect, and enterprises can earn money and survive.
The "little thing" of taking a shower
On the afternoon of March 8, 66-year-old Liu Jinsheng lay on his "bed" and took a shower.
The highest temperature that day was 18°C. He was afraid that he would catch a cold, so the air conditioner was still running in the room to warm the air.
His wife, Aunt Zheng, leaned over to his ear, "We're going to take a bath, it's so comfortable." Hearing "take a bath", Liu Jinsheng's legs dangled in the bed.
The two bath assistants have a clear division of labor. One is taking the old man's blood pressure, and the other is controlling the bathing machine and testing the water temperature with the back of his hand.
The mobile shower machine can store 25 liters of water, and the water temperature is finally fixed at 33°C.
After turning over twice, Liu Jinsheng lay on the bath bed, pumping air with the air pump.
The bath assistant first washed Liu Jinsheng's feet with water. He put his hands behind his head, supported his head, and yawned.
An accidental explosion in the boiler room three years ago took away Liu Jinsheng's sanity and left him with a crippled left leg and left hand.
In the words of Aunt Zheng, "IQ is about the same as a child who is three or four months old."
For three full years, he didn't take a bath again.
In summer, Aunt Zheng wipes his body twice a day.
In winter, wipe it every other day.
Not only is it strenuous, but there is still a smell on my body.
When the child went home to help on the weekend, he was naked in front of the child. He first laughed, and then pushed away with his hands to express his rejection.
The bath assistant came to the door for the first time.
As soon as he put down the bath bed, Liu Jinsheng dragged his wife, thinking that another 120 emergency personnel had come.
Aunt Zheng said, "I won't go to the hospital this time, they will come to bathe you." He didn't believe it, and looked at the bath assistant.
Waiting for the shower head to spray water, he stretched out his hand and gave a thumbs up.
Grease forms on the surface of the skin, and the towel is slippery when rubbed against the body.
After rubbing for a while, the water became cloudy.
For Liu Jinsheng, this washing is not a bath, but dignity.
Aunt Zheng asked him, "Are you happy taking a bath?" He nodded.
That afternoon, he slept for a long time and woke up very refreshed.
According to Fang Yana, the business leader of the bathing team, for an elderly person like Liu Jinsheng, the team has to serve four to five thousand people every year, and when they are busy, there are ten or twenty orders a day.
The service targets include retired pilots and retired workers.
Some live in row houses, while others live in small bungalows on the second ring road.
No matter what job they were engaged in when they were young, what their family conditions were, and how to take a bath after being bedridden, these are the common problems they face.
In 2013, Zhang Guoqing, the founder of the team, came into contact with elderly products.
He set his sights on the "bathing" thing.
Zhang Guoqing's father was bedridden for more than four years.
In winter, when the fire was burning hot, he carried his father to a bamboo chair and laid a plastic sheet underneath.
Fill the kettle with several pots of hot water and rinse from head to toe several times.
But this is not only inconvenient, but also afraid of falling and touching, and only washes once a month.
Zhang Guoqing put forward the idea of "laying on the bed and taking a bath". He is very sure that young people will feel uncomfortable if they don't take a bath for a week, let alone disabled old people?
The little thing of taking a bath becomes a luxury after aging.
He left a sentence: "Our society must be in great need of products that can help the elderly take a bath."
In 2015, Zhang Guoqing successfully developed bath products.
An inflatable bath bed, with a shower machine next to it, was brought to the exhibition, and people thought it was for lesbian beauty.
Doing local promotion in the community, the uncle and aunt looked at the word "bath aid" on the roll-up, and mistakenly thought that it was selling massage oil.
No matter how many misunderstandings there were, Zhang Guoqing took the trouble to explain: what this product is for and how to use it.
In June 2016, Zhang Guoqing participated in the exhibition in Shanghai.
An old man in his 70s asked him, "When did your product come out?" Zhang Guoqing said that it was available last year.
The old man said with tears that his mother in her 90s made the last request before her death, "I want to leave cleanly." He wept in front of his mother, "Mom, you can ask for anything else, but how can I give it to you?" Wash?" The old man shook his head, "If I could give my mother a bath at that time, I would think it would be very worthwhile."
According to the results of the fourth sampling survey on the living conditions of urban and rural elderly in China jointly released by the National Office on Aging, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Finance in 2016, there are about 40.63 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly in my country, accounting for 18.3% of the elderly population.
With the deepening of aging, there will be more disabled and semi-disabled elderly.
Apart from the statistics, Fang Yana has seen the appearance of these old people after taking a bath.
An old man called all the children one by one after making an appointment for bathing services, "I haven't bathed for so many years, and someone will finally bathe me tomorrow. Come and see." There was an aunt who came to Beijing for cancer treatment. After washing my hair, my hair stuck together. After washing my hair, my hair was smooth and fragrant, and I kept touching my hair.
On March 8, the bath assistant gave Liu Jinsheng a bath, and sweat dripped from his forehead.
Putting on clean clothes, Liu Jinsheng smiled.
His wife reminded him on the side, thank them.
Liu Jinsheng seemed to want to get up from the bed, but his head still couldn't get off the pillow.
He clasped his fists and waved to the bath assistant.
Accompany the elderly to see a doctor
At 8 o'clock in the morning on March 8, Chen Guizhi and Wu Guangjin, both in their 60s, dragged a black leather suitcase full of dust into the outpatient hall of Tongren Hospital.
The afternoon before, they arrived in Beijing from Yantai, Shandong by high-speed train. The old couple were not used to using smartphones, so the daughter bought the ticket.
Chen Guizhi suffered from cataracts, and his vision was gradually disappearing. The doctors in Yantai refused to operate on them because the risk was too high. This time they came to Beijing, they wanted a final diagnosis.
This is not the first time that Chen Guizhi and Wu Guangjin went to Beijing to see a doctor. On March 3, they grabbed the expert number and came to the hospital from Yantai with their luggage. Added a number.
When the old couple came back to Beijing for medical treatment last time, they were accompanied by Wang Xuan. The daughter's child had just been born, so she couldn't accompany her in person, so she found an accompanying service online.
The outpatient hall was buzzing with people. The 44-year-old Wang Xuan passed through the crowd neatly, queued up, took a number, greeted two elderly people, and went straight to the examination room on the third floor.
Chen Guizhi spoke Shandong dialect and grabbed Wu Guangjin's arm. The two old men handed a thick stack of medical records into Wang Xuan's hands, and followed Wang Xuan closely.
Nearly an hour later, after finishing the examination, Wang Xuan took the two elderly people to the east courtyard area separated by a street. After registering the number, she sat down on the chair in the waiting area. thin sweat.
Wu Guangjin poured out a small glass of water from the thermos, and Chen Guizhi handed it to Wang Xuan, asking her to drink it first.
There are few empty seats left in the waiting hall of the ophthalmology clinic on the third floor. Chen Guizhi and Wu Guangjin are scattered in seats far apart. Wu Guangjin walks up to Wang Xuan from time to time, his tone changing from pleading to anxious, "Go and have a look." , why isn't it our turn yet?"
The hospital is full of anxious people who have no place to rest. Wang Xuan, who has just entered the industry for half a year, has become accustomed to the emotional demands of clients. She understands that the job of an accompanying doctor is not only to provide convenience in the process of seeking medical treatment, but also to appease the elderly. An anxious heart in pain.
The number on the display screen was called 30, and Chen Guizhi's number was 70. Wang Xuan stood up and accompanied Wu Guangjin to the door of the consulting room to have a look.
For Wang Xuan, she spends most of her working time waiting. In order to protect the privacy of her clients, she seldom chats with patients. Before becoming an accompanying doctor, she worked as a housewife for many years. I saw the recruitment information of an accompanying doctor, "I think this job is easy to get started, and I don't need to be on duty." Without much hesitation, she joined the job.
But in fact, the accompanying doctor is harder than she imagined. Every time she goes to a hospital she is not familiar with, she has to arrive half an hour in advance to familiarize herself with the process and even go through the route in advance.
The results of Chen Guizhi's consultation were not good, and the risk of surgery was too high. Apart from conservative treatment, there was almost no better treatment plan.
In the corridor of the hospital, she sighed heavily, and Wang Xuan patted her on the back, comforting her softly.
Having seen such scenes many times, Wang Xuan does not allow herself to invest too much emotion, "otherwise it will be too exhausting", she separates emotion from work, and requires herself to treat this work in a professional way.
Su Mingwei, the founder of the accompanying doctor team, has also experienced such a stage. Most of the people who come to seek accompanying services are elderly people who have come to Beijing from other places, and a large part of them have already been consulted in local hospitals. Seeing a doctor is the possibility of getting more opportunities, but sometimes, Beijing's hospitals are helpless to deal with the disease. "It is difficult to separate emotions from work. This is a job that consumes a lot of emotions."
Su Mingwei thinks she has a strong sense of empathy. Once, when she was sick, her husband was away on a business trip, and her parents were taking care of young children. She had to go to the hospital alone. The feeling of loneliness and helplessness made her unforgettable , in front of the self-service number machine, she also witnessed the embarrassment of the elderly facing the smart device.
Su Mingwei had the idea of being an accompanying doctor. At that time, she had already started to start a business in the direction of elderly care, but the problem of high investment and low income has always troubled her. The project of accompanying doctor met her needs very well. In addition to making money, she believes that this is a service that many elderly people really need.
In 2021, Su Mingwei began to work as an accompanying doctor by herself.
At first, someone consulted online for a long time, but then said, "Are you a liar?"
In Su Mingwei's impression, 2021 is also a year of blowout for accompanying doctors. In the past two years, the market competition has become more intense. Apart from independent individuals, many brands and companies have emerged, "but with more and more practitioners, this industry It is also a mixture of fish and dragons", Su Mingwei met colleagues who claimed to be accompanying doctors but eventually brought patients who planned to see a doctor in a public hospital to a private hospital.
But in fact, as an emerging profession, medical escorts have not yet had clear industry entry thresholds and market supervision. Su Mingwei said, "Neither the civil affairs department nor the human resources and social security departments have standardized requirements for accompanying medical practitioners." Su Mingwei's When the company applied for a business license, it set its business scope on health management and home care services, "because the accompanying doctors really don't have any qualifications or business scope."
But in recent years, the industry has also been seen by more people, and the trust of customers in them has spread beyond the hospital. "How to stay in Beijing and what interesting attractions are there, these will be consulted by customers."
Unable to find a good solution, Chen Guizhi and Wu Guangjin were going to take the high-speed train back to Yantai that day. Wang Xuan sent them to the overpass leading to the subway entrance. The old couple wanted to invite Wang Xuan to have lunch together, but Wang Xuan waved them down.
She looked at the two elderly people walking up the bridge arm in arm, and called their daughter. The content was: they have arrived at the subway station, and everything is safe for the two of them.
move the nursing home home
Once, 88-year-old Wang Meiyun had to rely on a rope to get up.
The bed was old-fashioned, with a column at each corner. She tied a rope to the outer column at the end of the bed. The rope was not long enough, and she attached a length of old sheet.
When waking up, Wang Meiyun wrapped the old sheet around her hands twice, and then "like a tug-of-war", exerted all her strength, first "pulled" her upper body up, then slowly moved her upper body, put her hands on her legs, put them on the ground, and put her feet together. After landing, he picked up the crutches beside him, and only then did he finish "getting up".
Because of a herniated lumbar disc, Wang Meiyun walked tremblingly and had to rely on crutches.
Slips and falls are common. The most serious one was a broken bone, and it took me four months to recover in bed.
To this end, she covered the floor of her home with foam boards, at least as a cushion in case of a fall.
Jia Qiuran, a mediation consultant, still remembers that the first time she came to do a pre-assessment for Wang Meiyun, the old man waved his hand and said, "No, it's fine to hold the rope by yourself and lean on the wall."
"The cost of refitting for the elderly is paid by the community where the elderly live, but the elderly are still unwilling."
Jia Qiuran took out a professional bedside armrest and said, or you can try this, and if it fits, you can keep it, and if it doesn’t fit, we will take it away. "She tried to support it, and found it really useful, so she agreed with us to install it."
During that remodeling, Wang Meiyun’s home was not only equipped with bedside handrails, but also installed 8-meter-long handrails in the aisle of the home, with a bath chair. “Basically, without changing the home decoration, according to the elderly’s Physical condition, living environment, to solve the problems that the elderly urgently needed to solve at that time.”
E Junyu, the founder of this elderly care company, only began to understand "home-based aging" after his mother fell down.
In 2013, E Junyu's mother suffered from a slight stroke and her physical coordination ability was relatively poor. When she was taking a bath, one of them didn't pay attention and fell.
Before that, E Junyu had been engaged in the real estate industry. He realized that in the past, in the process of housing construction in our country, there was generally a lack of design and configuration suitable for aging.
Some house designs even add obstacles to the life of the elderly invisibly. For example, when decorating some houses, a step is built between the living room and the dining room for the sake of beauty and division of areas, which increases the risk of falls for the elderly.
E Junyu once suggested that his mother go to a nursing home, but the old man refused, "She hopes to live with her family in the home she is most familiar with." The old man is unwilling to leave home, and this home is full of risks. Move home and turn your home into a senior living environment.
At that time, E Junyu did not find suitable aging-friendly products in China. After he visited Japan, he found that there were 60,000 to 70,000 aging-friendly products in the world.
After returning, he installed non-slip floors and bath chairs for his parents' home, and plans to introduce these products into China.
Zhou Yanmin, a professor at the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University who has long been concerned about the design and research of residential buildings for the elderly, said in an interview with the media that the most important problem to be solved in the aging renovation is the falls of the elderly.
According to data from the China Disease Surveillance System in 2019, falls have become the leading cause of death due to injuries among the elderly over 65 years old in my country.
A study published in the "Chinese Journal of Epidemiology" investigated the data of more than 200,000 elderly people who fell from 2015 to 2018, and found that 56.41% of elderly people's falls occurred at home.
In China, most elderly people choose to live at home.
In 2021, the National Health and Health Commission introduced in a press conference that most of the elderly in our country will live at home and in the community, forming a "9037" pattern, that is, about 90% of the elderly will live at home, and about 7% will rely on the community. Support for the elderly, 3% of the elderly live in institutions for the aged.
As early as 2016, Beijing began to use government procurement to carry out aging-friendly renovations for elderly families with financial difficulties.
Lu Yinling, deputy secretary of the party committee of Mofang Beili Community, Jinsong Street, first came into contact with aging renovation in 2019.
She still remembers that an elderly family had to step up a high step to enter the bathroom. The old man's knees were not good, and every time he went to the bathroom, he had to grab the side of the sink and walk slowly.
Later, a slope was installed at the door of the toilet, and a folding handrail was installed beside the toilet. "It looks like a simple appliance, but it is very helpful to the elderly, and the elderly are very happy."
Afterwards, purchasing services from market-based aging companies and carrying out aging-appropriate transformation became one of the annual Mobei community party organizations’ services to the masses.
Jia Qiuran has also participated in the aging renovation work of Jinsong Street. She remembers that in the home of a couple in their 70s, the steps at the door of the bathroom were more than ten centimeters high. Finally, you need to turn around and then squat down.
"In the old community, such cases are not uncommon."
Another feature of the old community is the dark light.
Jia Qiuran once met an old man who lived alone. There was no light in the living room, the corridor was long and thin, and the lights in the house were very dim.
The old man's eyesight is not very good, because she can't see clearly, she "trapped" herself in the bedroom, watching TV to pass the time every day.
They changed the lamp for the old man, and installed handrails at appropriate positions in the room.
During the return visit, Jia Qiuran found that the spirit of the old man had changed, and he even showed them the newly planted flowers, which were green and had not yet bloomed.
Jia Qiuran grew up with his grandmother and grandfather, who had been a farmer all his life, and the work in the field bent his waist, "like a shrimp".
She remembered that her grandfather always slept on his side. When he woke up, he grabbed the edge of the bed with one hand and put the elbow of the other hand on the bed. Hitting the wall, "the whole process is very slow".
At that time, Jia Qiuran, who was still young, didn't understand why it took so long for grandpa to get up.
In the village, she has seen many old people like grandma and grandpa who have been working all their lives.
For this reason, Jia Qiuran University chose to major in geriatric rehabilitation and management. "Many elderly people have had a difficult life, and they should enjoy happiness when they are old. Their health has deteriorated, and we should help them spend their old age better."
(Liu Jinsheng, Chen Guizhi, Wu Guangjin, Wang Meiyun are pseudonyms)
Beijing News reporter Chen Yajie Du Hansan Li Bingjie