Study On The Improvement Of China’s Social Service System For Elderly

The improvement of the social service system for the elderly is an inevitable requirement for China to positively address the issue of the aging population, and to ensure and improve the livelihood of the people. As one of the most important contents, it has been written into the report for the Eighteenth National Party Congress and the National Strategic Planning. The aging of the population in China has entered a stage of rapid development. The existing social service system for the elderly is facing severe challenges. Meeting the elderly people’s growing demands for their social service system is related to China’s overall development and hence the welfare of hundreds of millions of people. It is the embodiment of the fundamental purpose of Communist Party of China to "serve the people wholeheartedly", and serves as the key component to implement the guiding ideology for the completion of comprehensive well-off society and realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Consequently, it is of great significance to study the improvement of China’s social service system for the elderly.Based on fundamental national conditions, in this dissertation, we analyze the evolutional theories and practical experiences of China’s social service system for the elderly. By following the principle of "government guidance, policy support, social participation and market promotion", we perform the case confirmations, logical derivations and systematical analysis on how to improve China’s social service system for the elderly to solve the key problems existing in the system development process. We intend to propose the theoretical models for the government to develop the social service system for the elderly. We also provide references for the decision-making in the implementation of the national strategic objective of "proper caring of the elderly”.Through the study in this dissertation, we have drawn the following conclusions: The social service system for the elderly includes living care, rehabilitation care, spiritual comfort, social participation and other concrete services for the elderly, as well as the corresponding guarantee mechanisms for their operations. To adapt to the economic and social development of China and the transformation of the population structure the modes of social service system for the elderly should be converted from family provision to social security, from family care to social service, from scattered living to concentrated home-living, and from life caring to positive old-age caring. The new developing targets of “cultural old-age service, community health, rights protection, and aging industry” should be integrated into the current structuring of social service system for the elderly, which is constructed on the basis of “home caring as the foundation, community old-age caring as the dependence, institution old-age caring as the supplementation”, so that all social forces can be fully mobilized to maximize the function of the social service system for the elderly, under the condition of relatively limited social service resources for old-age caring.The specific chapters of the dissertation are as follows:Chapter One: Theoretical foundation of social service system for the elderly. In this chapter, by analyzing its constituent elements and characteristics, we define the concept of the social service system for the elderly. We further elaborate on the Marxist theoretical foundation and modern theoretical foundation for the development of the social service system for the elderly, and propose a systematically integrated and logistically consistent theory-framework for the improvement of social service system for old-age caring.Chapter Two: Development process of social service system for the elderly. In this chapter, by discussing the evolutional process of social service system for the elderly, we analyze the course and tendency of its development, reveal the dual factors that promote or hinder its development, and further summarize the beneficial experiences in the evolutional process of the national social service system for the elderly.Chapter Three: Current status, problems and their causes in China’s social service system for the elderly. In this chapter, based on comprehensive analysis on the current status, the existing problems and their causes, we perform questionnaire surveys, on-the-spot investigations and data analysis to illustrate the urgency and necessity to improve the current social service system for the elderly. It provides the realistic evidence for the improvement of the social service system for the old-age caring.Chapter Four: International comparison in the development of social service system for the elderly. In this chapter, taking the Swedish model, the American model, the British model and the Japanese model as esearch subjects, we summarize the development experiences catering for the national condition and the traditional culture of China, which provide the reference and inspiration for the scientific development of the national social service system for the elderly.Chapter Five: Improvement approach of China’s social service system for the elderly. In this chapter, we elucidate the concept, objectives and principles to improve the social service system for the elderly. We also propose the four concrete tasks to improve the social service system for the old-age caring, i.e., improving the rights protection institution for the elderly, improving the service system of the community health, improving the cultural service system for the elderly and improving the policies for the development of aging industry.Chapter Six: Improvement of the rights protection institution for the elderly. In this chapter, we elaborate on the concept and main contents of rights protection for the elderly, comprehensively analyze the main problems existing in China’s rights protection for the old-age caring, and propose the countermeasures and suggestions to improve the protection institution of the rights for the elderly.Chapter Seven: Improvement of community health service system for the elderly. In this chapter, by analyzing the restraint factors in the development process of China’s community health service system for the elderly, we illustrate that community health service with continuity, comprehensiveness, coordination and integration should be offered to the old people. We also propose countermeasures and suggestions to improve the community health service system for the elderly.Chapter Eight: Improvement of cultural service system for the elderly. In this chapter, we propose the idea that the cultural service system should be provided to the old people to enhance their social participations and the spiritual enjoyments, so as to improve social service system for the elderly. Based on the study of current status of the cultural service system for the elderly, we propose the strategy for its development.Chapter Nine: Promoting the development of China’s aging industry. In this chapter, we provide the definition of he aging industry, and indicate that the aging of the population is an important base for the strategic adjustment of the national economic structure. We further propose the specific countermeasures to meet the demands in social services for the elderly through the development of aging industry.