My parents are old, who will help me take care of me day and night
The 2023 State Council institutional reform plan proposes to improve the work system for the elderly. Implement the national strategy of actively coping with population aging, promote the realization of basic old-age services for all the elderly, and transfer the responsibilities of the National Health Commission to formulate and coordinate the implementation of policies and measures to cope with population aging, and undertake the specific work of the National Working Committee on Aging to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The Office of the National Working Committee on Ageing was relocated in the Ministry of Civil Affairs to strengthen its responsibilities of comprehensive coordination, supervision and guidance, and organization and promotion of the development of the cause of the elderly.
Zheng Gongcheng, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, president of the Chinese Society of Social Security and professor of Chinese Minmin University, said in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily that such institutional adjustment is to meet the needs of the new era, and the improvement and reorganization of the system and mechanism of the work on the elderly reflects the significant increase in the country's attention to the work of the elderly, and at the same time strengthens the overall planning and top-level design, "paying attention to the basic old-age services enjoyed by all the elderly, we must make overall planning and concentrate more resources."
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For the middle-aged generation of only children, the biggest worry at present is that parents are getting older day by day, and once they get sick, they need to be taken care of at all times, but they can't find anyone to help them.
During the "60th Five-Year Plan" period, it is expected that the total number of elderly people aged 3 and above in China will exceed 4000 million. At present, the disabled and semi-disabled elderly population has reached <> million. The accelerated arrival of China's aging society has become a social issue that needs to be solved urgently.
Old-age care is not only a family affair, but also a national affair. Actively responding to the aging of the population has risen to the national strategy, and every year at the National Two Sessions, the issue of old-age care has become a hot topic of discussion among the deputies and members, and the construction of a professional elderly care worker team has become a top priority.
Yu Chunshui, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice president of Tianjin Medical University, noted that the State Council's institutional reform has made corresponding adjustments to the work system for the elderly, that is, a number of functions of various departments have been transferred to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which he believes will help rationalize the functions of the work on the elderly and improve management efficiency.
"Ageing is an integrated function that covers all aspects." He believes that "the government management system is set up to be guided by 'concentrating on getting things done', integrating and utilizing resources in all aspects, and focusing on solving some key and difficult problems." ”
On average, each nursing institution in China has less than one qualified professional nursing staff
Zhao Pingping, who resigned from a nursing home last year, now works as a 24-hour nurse in the inpatient department of a third-class hospital in Tianjin, responsible for one-on-one care of inpatients. She told the China Youth Daily reporter, "This is much easier than working in a nursing home, and the income is higher." ”
When working in a nursing home, she alone has to be responsible for the daily care of more than 10 elderly people, with a monthly income of about 4000,<> yuan. Many of her colleagues have resigned from nursing homes.
Ding Mei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a full-time deputy chairman of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Democratic League, who has been concerned about the issue of old-age care for many years, has also noticed this increasingly prominent problem - the rapid loss of nursing staff in elderly care institutions.
In the past year, she has investigated and visited a large number of elderly care institutions and found that since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China's elderly care service industry has experienced a more severe test, and the lack of money and personnel in pension institutions has become more and more serious.
In the past few years, elderly care institutions have increased investment and costs in environmental transformation, facilities and equipment, and human resources. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of elderly residents in nursing institutions has decreased, the utilization rate of beds has decreased, the income of nursing institutions has decreased, and the financial pressure has increased sharply. A survey found that 80% of nursing care institutions are losing money.
Some heads of nursing institutions reluctantly told Ding Mei that because they could not pay high wages, the inability to retain nursing staff had become their biggest headache.
"Comparing hearts to hearts, the pressure to be experienced in this industry is unimaginable for many people." When Ding Mei interacted with the nursing staff in the nursing home, she really felt the great pressure they were under.
Nowadays, in order to ensure the health of the elderly, many elderly care institutions still adopt closed or semi-closed management, and many elderly people are emotionally unstable, and even scold the nursing staff, requiring the nursing staff to spend more effort and energy to comfort and care for the elderly. At the same time, due to heavy workloads, physical and mental stress, and low income, the loss of caregivers is serious.
The long-term shortage of elderly care personnel directly leads to a decline in management quality and service quality, which in turn will affect the occupancy rate of elderly care institutions, which in turn will cause difficulties in the operation of institutions and make it difficult to provide reasonable salaries for nursing staff, "thus forming a vicious circle." Ding Mei said.
Before the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year, Zheng Gongcheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, conducted a survey in many provinces in China, and the results showed that each pension institution in China has less than one qualified professional nursing staff.
In Beijing, the average monthly income of nursing staff in professional nursing institutions is only about 3000,1000 yuan, and in some parts of Sichuan, it is even only about <>,<> yuan. Most of these elderly care workers are middle-aged and elderly women from rural or urban suburbs.
Zheng Gongcheng believes that there are many reasons that restrict the development of China's elderly care service industry, and the low income of nursing staff leads to unstable teams, insufficient personnel, and poor service as the fundamental reasons.
"Spending a lot of money but not getting the perfect service"
"This year's Spring Festival, when it rises to 500 yuan a day, you can't hire a nurse." Citizen Han Yan's father is paralyzed in bed and needs to be supervised at all times. He consulted several nursing institutions, all of which said that such disabled elderly people "can't accept it."
In desperation, he could only invite the caregiver to his home, which cost 7000,<> yuan a month. During the Spring Festival this year, the nurse proposed to take leave to go home for the New Year, and Han Yan and his family not only prepared a round-trip ticket for him, but also packed thousands of yuan in large red envelopes, "for fear that people will not come back!" ”
The reporter learned that in many first-tier cities in China, the daily salary of 24-hour nurses is about 200 yuan to 350 yuan. There are also many people who complain that "they spend a high price but can't buy satisfactory service".
Yu Chunshui believes that home care is the main way of care in China, and if the demand for the elderly to see passport materials is not met, children cannot work with peace of mind. However, at present, the supply of elderly care institutions is insufficient, and the team of home care care personnel is far from meeting the rigid needs of home care in China.
At present, the problem that deserves special attention is that most young college students who have graduated from elderly care-related majors are reluctant to pursue nursing-related careers. At present, most of the people engaged in home-based elderly care work are laid-off workers or migrant workers, "they have a low level of education, low professional skills, and most of them do not have professional qualifications, and it is difficult to carry out higher-level services such as rehabilitation nursing, medical care, and spiritual comfort." ”
Zheng Gongcheng suggested that policy formulation should pay attention to "two tilts": leaning towards nursing staff caring for the disabled elderly, and leaning towards nursing staff in marginal and poor areas of the old and young.
"Disability in old age is almost everyone's biggest concern, and the most in need of care in the elderly group is the disabled elderly." He said that the nursing staff serving the disabled elderly do the hardest, most tiring and dirtiest work, and they not only need professional skills in nursing, but also need the love of children and humanistic care. Therefore, the government should support nursing care institutions in the elderly care service industry, support professional nursing staff to obtain reasonable labor remuneration, and public investment should be tilted towards them. At the same time, public resources at the central and provincial levels should also be tilted towards the old, young, border, and poor areas.
Elderly care is well done and deserves to be respected by the whole society
Last year, Wang Cheng, a 26-year-old Sichuan boy, settled in Shanghai as a key talent introduction as an elderly care worker. This releases an important signal, and also reflects a value orientation - young people can also have a better future for elderly care.
"It's a sense of professional honor." Ding Mei said that in the past three years of fighting the epidemic, the white soldiers of the medical and health system have rushed forward and won the respect of the whole society, "but many nursing staff who have been working in nursing homes for a long time have done a lot silently to protect the health of the elderly, but their efforts have not received the attention they deserve." ”
Ding Mei learned in the survey that young people who study nursing are willing to work in hospitals rather than go to nursing homes, in addition to salary, an important reason is that they have encountered a career ceiling, "A nursing staff in a nursing home cannot evaluate the title and cannot see room for development." ”
"If you do a good job in elderly care, you should also be able to evaluate model workers and be respected by the whole society." Ding Mei said.
She suggested encouraging all localities to introduce cost operation subsidy measures for institutional employees, include pension institutions in key institutions that are in short need of talents, give policy preferences to qualified personnel in terms of settlement, etc., and strengthen vocational training for elderly care practitioners, expand career growth channels, and strengthen the sense of professional honor.
At this year's National Two Sessions, many deputies and members said that in addition to increasing the salary of elderly care employees, the introduction of some related supporting measures and the input of social forces will help promote the solution of the pension problem.
Ding Mei believes that more "mutual aid for the young" mechanism should be established, giving full play to the strength of those elderly who have just retired and are in better health, to volunteer in nursing institutions, or to serve the elderly in the community, accumulate volunteer hours, and exchange corresponding services when they need it in the future.
Ding Mei found in some nursing home visits that this mutual aid mechanism can greatly relieve the emotions of the elderly, "different volunteers will bring different feelings to the elderly, helping to break their solidified social state."
Zheng Gongcheng also agrees with this attempt. He believes that mutual help among neighbors and mutual help between relatives and friends should be supported. Corresponding support for family members who take care of elderly parents and grandparents should be included in the overall framework of the development of China's old-age service system, and corresponding policy measures should be supported.
"Everyone gets old, and there are old people in every family." Zheng Gongcheng said that in the process of irreversible in-depth development of aging, solving the problem of old-age services is to solve the biggest worries about people's livelihood.
Hu Chunyan, reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network