”When you are old, your hair is gray, and your sleepiness is drowsy. When you are old, you can’t walk anymore, dozing by the fire, remembering your youth…” When the familiar melody sounded, some sighed, some teared, some melancholy… This poem “When You Are Old” is adapted from the poem “When You Are Old” by Irish poet Yeats. It was originally a love poem dedicated to friends. After being adapted by “North Drift” musician Zhao Zhao, it sang many The feelings and sadness that people face when they or their family members get old.
The aging of the human body is a natural law, and everyone knows this fact. However, my country’s elderly population is large, the aging rate is fast, and the health status of the elderly is not optimistic. It is particularly worthy of attention. According to the data released by the “China Development Report 2020: Development Trends and Policies of China’s Population Aging”, by around 2022, China’s population over 65 will account for 14% of the total population, realizing the transition to an aging society; in 2050, China’s aging will reach its peak, and China’s population over 65 will account for 27.9% of the total population.
The aging of the population is an inevitable trend of social development and a manifestation of the progress of human civilization. While the ultra-rapid and large-scale aging has brought huge challenges to my country’s old-age security and service system construction, the burden of support for families with only one child has also increased.
Many places in China are actively exploring and trying how to deal with the aging wave. For example, Beijing introduced social capital to transform old communities to adapt to the aging; Shanghai actively supported the elderly to establish “neighborhood” mutual assistance for the elderly; Nanjing promoted the “time bank” of elderly care services throughout the city, in exchange for today’s voluntary services for tomorrow’s retirement protection; Xiangtan transformed the second-level hospital and developed it into an institution with integrated medical care and nursing care. The annual occupancy rate of health care beds exceeded 95%…
From these cases, it is not difficult to find that if the elderly rely solely on government power, it is difficult to achieve “basic benefits for everyone”. The goal of “Elderly Care Services”. Therefore, it is necessary to make a clear distinction between “what the government does” and “what the market do”, and adjust measures to local conditions, scientifically set the entry threshold and subsidy policies for the elderly care industry, encourage more social capital to enter the elderly care industry, and give play to the basic role of market allocation.
This year is the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the year when the 14th Five-Year Plan was drawn up. It is also the 20th year that my country has entered a society with an aging population. The “14th Five-Year Plan” period will become a key “window period” for my country to deal with population aging. How to effectively seize the “window period” to resolve the pain points and difficulties in the issue of elderly care will be a major livelihood project for a long period of time in my country.
Health and longevity are the eternal pursuit of mankind, and we all desire a longevity with quality, dignity and healthier. Elderly care is not a fast-food and profitable industry. The competition is love, patience, attentiveness, and care. Only with the joint efforts of all parties can we usher in “the old are safe, dependent, happy, and secure” Beautiful tomorrow.
