The shortcomings of home-based elderly care services in urban communities

Through a survey of the community, it was concluded that the elderly care services cannot meet the needs of the elderly, there are no professional elderly care attendants, and the Facilities and venues are insufficient. The following are the shortcomings of home-based elderly care services in urban communities that I have compiled. Welcome to read!

Home care is proposed on the basis of institutional care and family care. In 20xx, the country put forward the "Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting Home Care Services", which clarified the concept of home care. important meaning. The goal of home care is to prevent people from changing their original lifestyle and living style as they age, and to promote "healthy aging" and "active aging." Guiyang City actively carried out pilot projects for home-based elderly care services in 20xx. This study chose Huaxi District for investigation because the aging population in Huaxi District is more prominent and is on the rise. Next, we will discuss the shortcomings of home-based elderly care services in urban communities and the author's thoughts on improving home-based elderly care services in urban communities.

1. Shortcomings of home-based elderly care services in urban communities

(1) Elderly care services cannot meet the needs of the elderly. Mingzhu Community provides few elderly care services, including low-level elderly care services such as shopping for goods and cleaning. These services cannot meet the spiritual needs of the elderly. Traditional elderly care mainly focuses on material support for the elderly. As long as the elderly have food, clothing, and housing, the purpose of elderly care is basically achieved. After entering modern society, the needs of the elderly have changed greatly. The elderly should not only have food, clothing, and housing, but also have spiritual enjoyment, dignity, and the ability to express their wishes. The elderly hope that they can enjoy filial piety and family happiness when they are unable to do anything. As a provider of elderly care services, we not only want the elderly to live decently, but also let them live with dignity and meaning. In addition, today's elderly people are unwilling to accept their old age, which also brings some challenges to the design of elderly care service projects. In the survey, many elderly people mentioned that they do not yet need home care services because they can still take care of themselves. Many of these elderly people are in their 70s or even 80s. Among the 100 elderly people in this study, only 10 were unable to take care of themselves. Among the 34 elderly people over 80 years old, 5 chose to be completely able to take care of themselves, and 22 chose to be basically able to take care of themselves. This is enough to show that the elderly have a mentality of dissatisfaction with old age. The dissatisfaction of the elderly in the new era and their demands for spiritual enjoyment pose new challenges to the design of home care service projects. (2) Lack of professional elderly care attendants. Chaoyang Neighborhood Committee and Xibei Neighborhood Committee under Mingzhu Community have Grid Social Workers. The work process of Grid Social Workers is as follows: When people come to complain, Grid Social Workers accept the registration, and then Grid Social Workers handle it directly. If they cannot handle it, they report to the relevant departments. Assist with processing. The relevant departments will summarize the situation of the community into the community grid management every week. If there are major situations, they will be reported to the leaders. If there are no major situations, they will be archived. From a process perspective, the needs of the elderly can be served by grid social workers. However, grid social workers are not just responsible for the elderly. They must complete the population, public security, stability maintenance, quality of life, etc. of the residents within the grid within a time limit. Comprehensive information collection work and dynamic management of information. It can be seen that grid social workers are not professional elderly care attendants. In addition to grid social workers, the community also has neighborhood committee staff. Although they can solve some problems for the elderly, they do not have professional knowledge of elderly services. In addition, there are volunteers, but volunteers are generally composed of college students or caring people in society. Their services to the elderly do not have a long-term mechanism, so the needs of the elderly cannot be met by volunteers. (3) Lack of service facilities and venues. During the survey, the author found that Xibei Neighborhood Committee, Chaoyang Neighborhood Committee and Songshan Community in Mingzhu Community all lack elderly service facilities and venues. When I first went to the Xibei Neighborhood Committee, I asked the staff of the Neighborhood Committee if there was an elderly activity center in the community. The people from the Neighborhood Committee said that there was, and it was just at the intersection.

This intersection is at the entrance to the neighborhood committee. It is not a formal elderly activity center, but there is an open space where many elderly people like to sit and chat about home affairs. The author asked the elderly present whether there is a formal elderly activity center in the community. The elderly all answered no. It is just that many elderly people like to gather at intersections or go to Huaxi Park, so they regard intersections or Huaxi Park as activity centers. Many elderly people say that without an activity center, it is inconvenient for them to make friends, relax, and have fun, because the current "activity centers" are all open-air, and the elderly cannot get together when it rains. The elderly in Chaoyang Neighborhood Committee and Songshan Community also face this embarrassment. When the weather is sunny, they sit in the open air and chat about daily life. On cloudy or rainy days, they can only stay at home and not go out. To sum up, the Mingzhu Community home-based elderly care service projects cannot meet the multi-faceted needs of the elderly, and its service projects have yet to be developed. However, the professionalism of elderly care attendants is not high and cannot enable elderly care services to be carried out better. In addition, elderly care service facilities and venues have yet to be built. my country's home-based elderly care services are still in their infancy and exploratory stage, and there are many reasons why home-based elderly care cannot be well developed and implemented. At the practical level, home care for the elderly has encountered varying degrees of difficulties, from the launch of the project (mainly in terms of start-up funds) to the operation and evaluation of the project.

2. Some thoughts on improving home-based elderly care services in urban communities

(1) Based on the needs of the elderly, enrich service content. Elderly people with different self-care abilities have different requirements for elderly care services. In this study, there were 47 elderly people who were fully able to take care of themselves. These 47 people chose the elderly activity room 44 times, accounting for 93.6% of the time. The second most popular choice was the rehabilitation and health care room; the elderly who could basically take care of themselves preferred the elderly. activity room, followed by emergency relief facilities. There are 10 people who cannot take care of themselves. These 10 people choose the rehabilitation and health care room 9 times, accounting for 90%. The second most chosen one is the emergency rescue facility. It can be seen that we should develop different service contents for the elderly with different self-care abilities. For the elderly who cannot take care of themselves, we should provide a full range of door-to-door services, and if possible, build barrier-free facilities; for the elderly who can basically take care of themselves, we can provide corresponding services according to their needs; for the elderly who are fully able to take care of themselves, we can provide them with services based on their needs. They need to carry out various activities for the elderly to enrich their lives and improve their quality of life. The elderly care services we provide must be based on the real needs of the elderly, rather than taking it for granted. Otherwise, it will be a waste of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, but it will be a thankless effort. Therefore, we should adopt various methods to obtain first-hand information about the needs of the elderly, analyze the collected information, understand the dynamic needs of the elderly, and meet the needs of the elderly in a targeted manner.

(2) Introducing social work professionals. Home-based elderly care services not only require organizational managers at different levels, but also require a large number of specially trained service personnel with qualified service certificates, as well as some professionals engaged in theoretical research and teaching of home-based elderly care. Guizhou University and Guizhou University for Nationalities, which are adjacent to Mingzhu Community, both have social work majors. They train professional social work talents every year. They have mastered professional knowledge and skills in serving the elderly. If social work talents can be introduced into the community, On the one hand, it can promote the employment of social work professionals, and on the other hand, it can better serve the needs of the elderly. In addition, communities can also recruit social work students to perform volunteer services or internships, which can improve students' practical skills and alleviate the shortage of elderly services in the community. Of course, professional social workers have professional knowledge and skills in elderly care services. They are highly educated professionals, and their remuneration should be improved, otherwise they may have no motivation to work.

(3) The community must actively strive to change the mentality of "waiting, relying, and wanting". For elderly care services to run smoothly, the most indispensable thing is resources, including funds, locations, staff, etc. At present, funds for community construction are mainly provided by the government, but the government's financial resources are limited and it is impossible to provide sufficient resource guarantees for every specific community.

Therefore, the community must change the mentality of "waiting, relying, and wanting" and actively strive for resources to provide better services to the elderly. When conducting research on Mingzhu, the author found that the staff of Chaoyang Neighborhood Committee are actively applying for the "Resident's Home" project. The project is to renovate an office space in a residential courtyard into a residential home, and provide a new service platform for residents in the area by setting up infrastructure such as card rooms, lounges, calligraphy and painting rooms, restaurants, and gyms. This platform allows lonely elderly people and empty-nest elderly people in the jurisdiction to communicate emotionally and have leisure and entertainment, so that these elderly people can have a spiritual sustenance and find a feeling of "home". The approach of the Chaoyang Neighborhood Committee is commendable, because resources cannot come by just waiting. After all, the resources that the government can provide are limited. Only by taking the initiative can we get what we want. Therefore, communities must know how to proactively apply to better benefit the elderly within their jurisdiction.

Of course, given my country’s aging characteristics of “getting old before getting rich”, the government is unable to take full responsibility for the care of the elderly. Therefore, the community can also raise pension funds from the society or the government can actively raise pension funds from social members and establish a social support network for the elderly. ;