China News Service, Shanghai, April 26th, Question: Shanghai War Epidemic: How to Relieve "Special Populations" in the Epidemic?
Author Li Pengfan Zhonghua
Since the outbreak of the current round of the epidemic, Shanghai has implemented strict "global static management".
During the epidemic, information for four special groups of people, including the elderly living alone, critically ill patients, disabled people who cannot take care of themselves, and extremely poor families, appeared frequently on social media.
Behind these requests for help looking forward to being "seen" are the "silent minorities" who have limited mobility and do not use communication channels such as the Internet and mobile phones. How to discover and bail out these special groups?
This is undoubtedly a major difficulty in epidemic prevention and control.
Help from the street community
Shanghai is a super-large city with the highest degree of aging in the country.
Official data show that by the end of 2020, there were 5.3349 million elderly people aged 60 and above, accounting for 36.1% of the total registered population.
There are 305,200 elderly people living alone in Shanghai, of which 22,600 are orphans.
During the same period, there were 595,000 disabled persons with certificates in Shanghai, accounting for more than 4% of the total registered population.
Ruijin 2nd Road Street staff help the elderly with disabilities to perform nucleic acid testing and sampling Photo by Yin Liqin
During the sudden outbreak, many of them cannot or cannot use smartphones, let alone "fighting hands" and participating in "group buying" to grab online shopping supplies; advanced age or physical illness, or a combination of multiple factors, many people live Self-care is difficult, and children and hourly workers are unable to take care of themselves due to various reasons. Eating meals, dispensing medicines, and seeking medical treatment have become imminent problems.
Except for relatives, friends, neighborhood committees, and neighbors, they have nowhere to turn to, and some people can only passively wait for assistance.
During the interview, the reporter learned that after the outbreak of the epidemic, charities and public welfare organizations received information from some neighborhood committees for material assistance for the extremely poor in the community. Some elderly people living alone and the disabled could only eat one meal a day. Due to the disease, the group does not even dare to drink more water without proper care.
"Every time the aid material arrives, the police from the relevant jurisdiction will come quickly and deliver it immediately, which is enough to show the urgency of the situation." said the person in charge of material preparation for a charity foundation.
Under the epidemic, there is a general shortage of manpower in grassroots communities.
A staff member of a community neighborhood committee described his "daily work" to reporters: organizing nucleic acid tests for residents, distributing antigen reagents, answering calls to solve emergencies or residents' questions, helping residents run errands to dispense medicines or solve home closure and control problems, and eliminate residents' group shopping resources. , Counting and transporting government materials and dispatching... "From the beginning of the lockdown, we lived in the office and often worked until two or three o'clock in the middle of the night, but five or six people faced thousands of people. Even with the assistance of volunteers, they still have spare energy. insufficient."
At the same time, the limited community "service teams" have repeatedly suffered "losses" due to the epidemic.
A volunteer in a community told reporters that as the secretary of the neighborhood committee, four staff members and volunteers were successively infected and transported in isolation, several volunteers withdrew due to anxiety and overwork. The training has resulted in "being in a state of being left and right for nearly a week, unable to take care of the details".
The superposition of various factors will undoubtedly form the "Matthew effect": the more troubled the group, the more difficult it is to speak through effective channels, the more difficult it is to reach material assistance, and the more people will be needed to provide help.
"At the most difficult juncture of epidemic prevention and control, the elderly living alone and extremely poor families in the community are relatively more affected, and in particular need to receive care, love and help," Jiang Rui, director of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, pointed out at a press conference At present, Shanghai is conducting a thorough investigation for the elderly living alone, especially the elderly living alone, or the elderly whose family members are isolated and treated and temporarily unattended, so as to grasp the actual needs and organize forces to provide assistance.
It is reported that there are currently nearly 50,000 senior care consultants, "Old Partner Program" volunteers, and building team leaders in the city who provide services for the elderly living alone. It is an initiative to "step forward" to grasp the situation of the elderly during the epidemic, help them relieve their difficulties, An important force for stabilizing emotions.
Jiang Rui also said that for the extremely poor families, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Department has strengthened assistance and support, requiring the timely and full payment of the minimum living security fund, equipped with necessary epidemic prevention materials, agricultural and sideline foods, daily necessities, etc., to ensure the basic life of the poor during the epidemic prevention and control period. .
The key node to ensure the supply of difficult groups
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, public welfare organizations, caring enterprises and individuals in and outside the city have launched material assistance, but there are actually many problems in how to accurately ensure the supply of materials to the destitute groups.
The person in charge of a company willing to donate materials told reporters that the company contacted the Shanghai Charity Foundation because it hoped to donate to the destitute groups.
The other party said that the company needs to provide information that can be delivered to certain districts and a total of several points. The foundation can provide the street address of the applied materials based on this, and the company will deliver the materials to the street, but "who will send the materials in the end? It needs to be determined by the streets and neighborhood committees as to which groups are in extreme poverty, and neither the foundation nor the enterprise can know.”
Xinjing Town community staff help the elderly to dispense medicines in the pharmacy Photo by Yin Liqin
"It's understandable," said the person in charge of the company. The neighborhood committees have few staff, and it is unlikely to carry out detailed material delivery statistics and feedback.
"When we connect aid materials for caring enterprises, we also encounter the situation that the streets refuse to accept them," the person in charge of a charity organization told reporters. First, because some grass-roots communities do not have the strength to distribute them in time, especially perishable fresh fruits and vegetables ; Second, the dissemination of information is not transparent, causing community residents to complain and puzzled, and individual streets simply receive less or not.
As the streets and neighborhood committees that have the "first-hand information" of the destitute groups, they are actually the key nodes for the accurate supply of aid materials.
Xiao Junfeng, deputy director of Quyang Sub-district in Hongkou District, told reporters that, driven by the construction of digital communities, the sub-district and neighborhood committees have mastered precise information on the poorest groups in their jurisdictions, including house numbers, names, specific difficulties and contact information.
Before the closure and control of Puxi, the street immediately retrieved the data, and conducted several rounds of surveys for groups with serious diseases, pregnant women and other groups that needed medical treatment. According to this, five types of special groups were divided, and emergency plans were formulated and sent to Neighborhood committees, volunteers, etc., focus on the destitute groups with limited strength.
On the basis of mastering the underlying information, Quyang Street has ensured the "two-way smooth flow" of information and materials through "borrowing resources" from multiple parties.
"First, through the 'Old Partner Program', volunteers ensure that they can communicate with the destitute groups every day; second, by actively connecting with the Shanghai Charity Foundation, finding and receiving donations from caring enterprises in the district, and receiving unified distribution from Hongkou District Expand the source of materials in the form of materials and other forms, and give priority to the protection of the destitute groups; the third is to convene the courier brothers living in the jurisdiction to form a 'Qushun Epidemic Prevention Commando' to ensure the transportation of materials 'the last mile', and community volunteers to ensure that the supplies go upstairs 'the last mile' 100 meters'." Xiao Junfeng said.
For those sub-district communities that do not accurately grasp the information of the difficult population within their jurisdiction in advance, it is an indispensable link to organize forces to sort out accurate information as soon as possible after the outbreak of the epidemic.
Song Jian, secretary of the neighborhood committee of Tianshan Riverside Garden in Changning District, caught up with the epidemic only three months after he took office.
During the interview with the reporter, it was found that by setting up a volunteer "information officer" in each building, the neighborhood committee not only completed the information survey work such as dispensing medicines for difficult groups, but also maintained information communication with the residents at all times, answered and collected questions, and continuously. The management plan for community epidemics was improved, and 5,000 people were managed by 7 people.
The disclosure and flow of information is also important.
On April 20, Dapuqiao Street, Huangpu District published a post titled "Where did the bacon from Lancang, Yunnan go?"
” public account article, in response to the doubts of the street residents, the donation timeline and distribution of related materials are disclosed, and the donated materials, donors, and donations received by the streets since the epidemic are listed one by one in tabular form. For residents to check for themselves.
In this way, the dissatisfaction that may be triggered due to opaque information is avoided in the assistance of the destitute groups.
social forces in action
As a mega city, the development status of various districts in Shanghai is uneven, and the floating population changes frequently. Some streets and communities have not had time to conduct a detailed survey of difficult groups and formulate emergency plans in advance.
Therefore, more socialized "information bridges" have been set up to help "point-to-point" assistance to the destitute groups.
Photo by Yin Liqin, a member of the Shanghai Aid Medical Team of Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, supporting the elderly
Shanghai mainstream media such as Jiefang Daily, Shanghai TV, The Paper, Xinmin Evening News, and the Financial Associated Press have recently opened 24-hour citizen helplines, taking advantage of the media to collect information about citizens seeking help and gather social assistance forces.
The corporate love docking platform built by the Financial Association is representative of a large number of aid platforms: on the one hand, it collects information for help, and on the other hand, it connects to find and aid caring companies. It is not easy to connect, and at the same time, due to the limited delivery capacity in the city, we can only provide collective assistance to difficult communities and nursing homes, and seldom support to meet individual demands; in addition, it takes manpower to repeatedly screen the information for assistance.”
Obtaining effective information and solving the problem of transportation capacity are the two major difficulties for social forces to help groups in difficulty.
In response to the call of the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce, the Shanghai Anhui Chamber of Commerce gathered the strength of the chamber of commerce and set up an emergency assistance platform for "Hui Camel" within two days.
Ni Jiali, secretary-general of Shanghai Anhui Chamber of Commerce and coordinating assistant of Huiluotuo, told reporters that on the one hand, fellows from Anhui in Shanghai and other difficult groups can apply for assistance through the platform; and delivery vehicles and other issues, so that the aid from Anhui can arrive in Shanghai smoothly, and point-to-point intra-city delivery is carried out according to the help information.
"Currently, 90% of 'Hui Camel' is targeted assistance for individuals seeking help," Ni Jiali explained. First, the reason why the platform can operate efficiently is because the chambers of commerce companies are in different industries, and the entire process design, platform construction, information desensitization , epidemic prevention measures, transportation and distribution, and even logistics support, return visit improvement and other aspects have reached close cooperation; second, flat management, including business leaders of the chamber of commerce, "everyone is a volunteer"; third, priority assistance will be given to groups in need .
However, she also pointed out that due to the coexistence of various help-seeking platforms in Shanghai, help-seekers often fill in applications on multiple platforms. To a certain extent, there is a problem of overlapping information, which leads to a waste of assistance resources such as transportation capacity.
Charitable organizations are also an indispensable force.
The Shanghai Senior Citizens Foundation collects the list of destitute groups through its volunteers set up in each district representative office. "The list will be detailed with names, house numbers, telephone numbers, etc., and the aided enterprises shall be responsible for the transportation in the city, and deliver them to the designated places in the community, and then by Volunteers completed the last 100 meters of delivery according to the list." Bao Xinlong, deputy director of the foundation's office, told reporters.
Cao Lan, director of the Special Lan Fund of the Shanghai Volunteer Service Public Welfare Foundation, introduced that the fund has a wide-ranging network of volunteers in the city. During the epidemic, it has received a large number of requests for help from destitute groups. With special requirements such as low sugar and convenient cooking, "it is still difficult to recruit suitable aid companies."
Facilitate the flow of information and materials
Before the "external force" assistance responds and arrives, more "endogenous forces" from the community and neighbors are providing support to the destitute groups.
"In those closed buildings in old communities, or in large-scale communities, neighbors often become the 'first person' to 'salvage' the elderly or the disabled, provide them with supplies, and help them seek help," a non-profit organization said. Industry insiders pointed out that the self-help of community residents and the mutual assistance of neighbors have shown great power in this epidemic.
At present, Shanghai is stepping up the establishment of a bottom-up mechanism for four types of special groups, including the elderly living alone, critically ill patients, disabled people who cannot take care of themselves, and extremely poor families, and has established an emergency and basic guarantee mechanism for the elderly living alone, dual-elderly families and other special needs groups in the city. Ensure the supply of basic living necessities for them.
Caojiayan Neighborhood Committee staff help the elderly to register their personal information before nucleic acid testing and sampling Photo by China News Agency reporter Yin Liqin Photo by Yin Liqin
This not only requires more street neighborhood committees to take action, concentrate their efforts on conducting multiple rounds of screening and arranging for the difficult groups within their jurisdiction, and give special care in ensuring the supply of materials, seeking medical treatment and buying medicines.
At the same time, social forces should also open up more channels to allow the two-way flow of help information and aid materials.
Recently, Bailian Group, relying on its subsidiary Lianhua Co., Ltd., has launched three different channels: hotline, mobile phone SMS and corporate WeChat to address the "urgency, worry, and difficulty" of the people's livelihood resources for the elderly over 80 years old living alone, the disabled and the groups with special difficulties in the community. A pair of assistance needs, and the logistics team of the same group will deliver.
Within 4 days, nearly 2,000 people have been asked for help, of which about two-fifths are disabled people, nearly half of the elderly are orphans, and the rest are extremely poor people.
Bright Group used the “96869” hotline for agriculture and industry to open “Bright Express” to connect the group’s brand livelihood products for the elderly in need; Yuexing Group opened the “400 telephone service hotline + WeChat applet of the same name + 10,000 community shop small two, shop The 24-hour online and offline double guarantee mode of "Little San"...
Difficulties are gradually easing.
However, there are still people in the e-commerce platform industry who say that at present, there are many open delivery points in the community, but there is a serious shortage of delivery personnel, which leads to blockages in the circulation of materials.
"Many supply-guarantee companies often place three or four thousand group purchase orders a day, but only one vehicle and one driver deliver the goods, and there are not enough loading and unloading personnel."
Some people in the logistics industry told reporters that at present, when the city's material recipients apply for a pass, the logistics company's "point-to-point" transportation of materials inside and outside the city is relatively smooth, but from the city's distribution center to many street outlets are still "disconnected". "Flow" state, unable to achieve point-to-point material delivery.
"However, if the company wants to provide designated assistance and the list is scattered, or if the company from other provinces and cities has no distribution capacity in Shanghai, it will be difficult to achieve in-city distribution with limited transportation capacity. Previously, the release of urban transportation capacity was mainly concentrated on e-commerce and takeaway platforms. On the one hand, the capacity of the express delivery industry has not yet recovered," the person said, and now the demand for material transportation in the city is bursting every day.
Some analysts said that the sudden outbreak of the epidemic was unprecedented in scale, and the normal social governance and operation mechanism was unbearable.
At present, Shanghai is still increasing the city-wide supply guarantee, improving the supply guarantee and bottom-up mechanism, and dredging the "mainstream" will further benefit the destitute groups.
Several interviewees suggested that after this "epidemic", megacities such as Shanghai are called upon to establish a sound emergency protection mechanism and make it part of public policy, thus ensuring the "capillary blood vessels" for the operation of the "wartime" market. "Continuous flow, and the forces from all walks of life can also be flexible in the overall coordination, break the bottleneck, and overcome the difficulties together.
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