An old man walks past a Chinese banner deriving from one of Confucian classics The Book of Rites, which means ‘Let the aged be supported.'

 

The professional development of caregivers is crucial to build a system to take care of the nation’s senior citizens because it is difficult to replace the workforce in this industry with machines, said Zheng Zhenzhen, a research fellow from the Institute of Population and Labor Economics (IPLE) under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Zheng shared her views at the symposium themed “Studies and Policies on Supply and Demand in Senior Care,” which was co-hosted by IPLE and East China Normal University (ECNU), in Shanghai, on July 11.

China does not have enough caregivers to meet the rising demand brought by an aging population and smaller families, which are ill-equipped to properly care for seniors. Li Qiang, associate professor from the Population Research Institute at ECNU, estimated that the demand for senior care workers will likely swell to 4 million by 2050. The current supply of senior care services is still unable to meet the demand, leading to an imbalance, he said.
 

Li’s colleague Gui Shixun shared his opinions about the guideline for insurance of the long-term care recently released by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Insurance coverage can be set according to regional conditions, which means China is gradually expanding coverage, while people will still be able to access insurance regardless of whether they hold a local household registration.
 

Aging elderly who have lost their only child are in a disadvantaged position in terms of marriage stability as well as physical and mental health, and they have higher expectations for policy support and more concerns about their life care, Wu Ruijun, dean of School of Social Development at ECNU, shared her findings of a study conducted in Shanghai.
 

A system of senior care based around the family and the home is the traditional and favorable model in China, but the nation did not provide enough support for those who take care of their elder family members at home.

Wang Jing, a doctoral candidate for demography at the Population Research Institute at ECNU, analyzed the existing difficulties for caregivers who took care of the disabled and those who suffered senile dementia.
 

These include insufficient government support, the government’s preference toward supporting families in poverty caused by earning less rather than spending more, and potential moral judgement over abandoning their family members if they just send them to elderly care facilities. The urgent question is whether China’s senior care system should be based more on the family or the market, she said.