Elderly care

A nursing home offers rewards to encourage people to visit parents and relatives.

A nursing home in Suzhou, JiangsuA nursing province,home in Suzhou, offers Jiangsu rewards to encourageprovince, people offers to rewardsvisit their to parentsandrelatives.encourage people to visit Accordingtheir parentsandrelatives. toFuxingNursing Home, According people toFuxingNursingwho visit the Home,home more people than who 30 visit times the in hometwo monthsmore can than get 30 a times voucherin two worth months200 yuancan get ($29).a voucherA 100worthyuan voucher200 yuan will ($29).be givenA 100if yuanthey visitmorethan20timesvoucher will be given inif theytwo months. visitmorethan20timesThe voucher canin twobe used months.to pay The for voucherthe nursingcan be home’s used fees.to pay for the nursing home’sYin Zongyin,fees. a director of the Yin home, Zongyin, saida directorthat theof the rewards, home, though said not too that much,the rewards,have successfullythough not too remindedmuch, have many people successfullyto visit. reminded many The peoplepolicy to was visit. issued about two The months policy was ago. issued Before about that, twoof the months512 seniorsago. in Beforethe homethat, of only the 137 512 were seniors visitedin the twice home a only month, 137 126 were once visiteda month twice anda month,134 once 126 every once twomonths.a month and No 134 once every twomonths. No one visited the 77 who often onesay they visited feel the lonely,77 he who said. often say But they sincefeel lonely,the couponhe said. was introduced,But since 129 the seniors coupon havewas introduced, hadpeoplevisitthemmorethan129 seniors have hadpeoplevisitthemmorethan30 times, 38 more than 20 times 30 and times,60 more38 more than than 10 20 times,times and according60 moreto the than nursing10 home. times, according “Nursing to the homes nursing can home. provide “Nursing professional homes servicescan provide to the seniors, professional butwecannot services provideto the seniors,the emotional butwecannot comfortprovide that onlythe emotionaltheir children comfort and that relatives only can their give,” childrenYin said. and relativesXiang can Furong, give,” a Yin nurse said. with the Xiang home, Furong,said thata the nurse averagewith the age home,of the 512 said seniorsthat the is average81 years age old. of Manythe 512 of seniorsthem wantis 81 yearsto be old. accompaniedMany of themby their want bloodto be accompaniedrelatives, not by by nursingtheir blood home relatives,workers. not by nursing home workers. “Some of the relatives feel ashamed“Some of when the they relatives know feel the ashamedpolicy,” said when Xiang. they “After know theythe policy,”visit the said home, Xiang. some “After seniorsthey visit have the better home, appetitessome seniors and have more smiles better on appetitestheir faces.” and more WeiMouwen,smiles on their deanofFuxingfaces.”

WeiMouwen, deanofFuxing Nursing Home, understands Nursingthe dilemma Home, people understandsface when the deciding dilemma whether people faceto spendwhen decidingtime at work whetheror take careto spendof elderly time familyat work members.or take care of elderly “For family those members. bread-earners whose “For parentsthose are bread-earnersgetting old, whosethey might parents not arebe able gettingto haveold, they enough might time not to be visit able the to home.have enoughFor couples time whoto visit are the the home. only For children couplesin their who families,are the only they childrenneed to takein their care families,of four they parents need andto take their care own of children.”four parents Wei and said their that own with children.”the senior populationWei said that increasingwith the rapidly,senior population morefamilies increasingwill facetheproblemofrapidly, morefamilies supportingwill facetheproblemoftheir parents. According supportingto the their Nationalparents. Health Accordingand Familyto the PlanningNational Health and Family Planning Commission, 222 million Chinese, Commission, accounting 222 formorethanmillion Chinese, 16 percent accountingof the formorethan population, 16 were percent60 or of older the at population,the end of were 2015. 60 Thator older numberat the grows end byof 2015. about That10 million number every grows year. by aboutTo encourage10 million every more year. people to To support encourage seniors, more local people governments to support are seniors,also rollinglocal governments out more policies.are also rolling out more For policies. example, Nanjing, capital For of example,Jiangsu Nanjing, province, capital has offeredof Jiangsu money province,to those whohas offeredtake care moneyof their to family those memberswho take careat of home. their family Beijing members has plannedat home. similar Beijing policies,has plannedwhich will give similar salaries policies,to jobless which peoplewill give who salariestake careto jobless of their people family who members.take care of their Beijing family also members. suggests that people Beijing who also take suggestscare of elderlythat peoplefamily who memberstake carebe givenof elderly holidays, family members including be celebratinggiven holidays, seniors’ including birthdays, celebratinggoing to seniors’ hospitals birthdays,and organizing going activitiesto hospitalson theChongyangand organizing Festivalactivities for theon theChongyangelderly, according Festivalto a for five-yearthe elderly,work plan accordingof the city.to a five-year work plan of the city.

have had people visit them more have than had30 times people since visit the them coupon more thanwas introduced.30 times since Only the 137 couponwere was visited introduced.twice a monthOnly 137 before were that. visited twice a month before that.