Offering seniors a helping hand at home

Several senior villagers catch some sun during a post-lunch break in Sangdao village, Longkou city, Shandong province. Exposure to sunlight boosts level of vitamin D, which can alleviate brittle bone disease, so sunbathing has become a popular recreational activity among elderly people in China. [Photo by Du Lianyi/China Daily]

China, the world's most populous nation, is "going silver" fast. Statistics published by the National Committee on Aging show that by the end of last year, 222 million Chinese were 60 or older, accounting for more than 16 percent of the population. Moreover, the number of seniors is growing by 10 million every year.

"We'll see more cases where children in their 70s are taking care of parents in their 90s. The market demand for home-based elderly care is huge," said Sheng Qinqin, head of training at the Shanghai Joyway Senior Care Center, which has provided home-care services for seniors since 2011.

Last month, speaking at a global summit on aging and health, jointly hosted in Shanghai by Fudan University and Columbia University in the City of New York, Wu Yushao, deputy director of the Office of the China National Committee on Aging, said: "The number of care-dependent and partially care-dependent seniors has reached 40 million, and 12 million of them are completely care-dependent. Despite that, it will take time for Chinese families to accept these new services."

Service providers said their trained caregivers are different from regular nannies - who mainly cook for seniors and help them to shower - because they assist with rehabilitation training and provide psychological nursing and high-quality companionship.

"First we perform muscle strength tests on the client and design a rehabilitation plan. Recovery is mainly based on professional massage, which helps to promote blood circulation, thus restoring nerve function and increasing muscle strength," said Fan Ting, Xiaobo's head of training.

"We have seen cases where seniors have restored certain bodily functions through rehabilitation. Some people who couldn't even hold a spoon were able to do so after a week, and could even hold chopsticks after a month," she said.

The companies said the caregivers are well-trained - they not only hold the national senior nursing qualification, but also receive additional training from their employers.

"Every caregiver spends at least 500 hours studying the theories of daily care, rescue and recovery, psychological counseling, nutrition and diet. They also practice different special scenarios, such as caring for someone with hemiplegia (partial paralysis), dementia, disability, chronic diseases and coping with emergencies, such as an unexpected fall, loss of consciousness or a heart attack. Of course, we don't employ anyone who fails the final exams," said Zhao Xia, Xiaobo's CEO.

Fan gave the example of a caregiver who was caring for an elderly man in hospital when the patient had a cardiac arrest. The caregiver immediately rang the bell for the nurses and started per-forming life-saving measures. "The care-giver performed CPR on the patient before the doctor and nurse arrived, which helped the senior to survive," she said.

Joyway's Sheng said the company holds a monthly meeting for the caregivers to allow them to share anything special they've encountered - maybe an encouraging or moving story, or com-plaints about patients' behavior or working conditions.

"It's an occasion for them to release the pressures they may feel if some clients are stubborn and demanding. It's also a way for them to share the sense of fulfillment and achievement they get from their work," she said.