Study On The Home-based Care Service Supply Models For The Elderly In Qingdao Rural Areas

In December 2011, The General Office of The City Council of Qingdao issued a document named The plan of the development of the course of the aging of the 12th five-year of Qingdao, which states that Qingdao has entered the fast growing period of population. The characteristics are the rapid aging of population and its fast speed, and the intensification of the ageing problem in rural areas. The severe challenges of the aging course are listed as follows. Firstly, the coverage of the social pension of the aged in rural areas is limited. Secondly, the phenomenon of Empty-Nest of the aged is highlighted. Thirdly, the number of the elderly who are not or partly able to take care of themselves in daily routine is increasing significantly. Lastly, the development of the society care service for the elderly is at the backwardness. However, the traditional supplying models of home-based care service for the elderly in rural areas are not able to keep pace with the development of the countryside any more. However, the newly emerging home-based care service for the elderly has been recognized and popularized. Thus establishing a rational and effective supplying model of the home-based care service has become a major subject in dealing with the aging problem in the rural areas of Qingdao.The research and system of home-based care service abroad has been sophisticated. And Chinese experts have laid more and more emphasis on the field in recent years, advocating that the service model of household pension is much more suitable for the domestic tendency of economy and society. However, there exist a few deficiencies in the experts’researches of our country. To start with, researchers classified many types of the models, while the developing researches are few. Secondly, there are more theoretical analyses than case analyses. Thirdly, qualitative researches are more than quantitative researches. Lastly, there are more researches on cities than that of rural areas.In recent years, the government of Qingdao has made great efforts to push through the schemes of home-based care service for the elderly in rural areas, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and promote the development of city and countryside. Yet in terms of the formulation and implementation of the home-based care service polices, policy makers are requested to emancipate their mind, broaden their thoughts, combine theories with practice, draw lessons from the experience of other countries and adopt experts’suggestions so that they will make advocating polices that accord with the development tendency of local areas and meet the needs of long-term development.A couple of quintessence which feature in excellent pension service in rural areas have emerged in China in recent years, such as the service model of household pension in Ningbo and Hangzhou, the "Happy Courtyard" coadjutant pension service model in Hebei Province, the "breathing service" in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, etc. Taking a broad view of foreign countries, we learn that "Compulsive Nursing Insurance" system has been implemented in Japan, the PACE (The Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) in the US and the Central Public Reserve Funds system in Singapore. All those models have provided positive reference for our supplying models of home-based care service.The existing supply models of home-based care service in China rural areas include Housekeeping Nursing Service Supply Model, Catering for the elderly Service Supply Model, and Nursing for the elderly in Town (Home) Supply Model and Family linked up with Compound Supply Model. The four models have distinctive features that are different from other models in the main body, targets and contents of service. The financial sources of the home-based care service supply models derive from government finance, town (home) collective income, personal payment and public donation. Among this, personal payment includes pensions, incomes of the elderly and society security funds. There exist three types of villages in Qingdao which are respectively based on agriculture, industry and service. With regard to these three types of villages, distinctive model designs should be made according to the different home-based care service supply models.Our domestic home-based care service has been confronted with numerous problems which mainly lie in single supplying models, lack of fund, personnel and policy coordination. Aimed at the problems mentioned above, officials are supposed to lay emphasis on theoretical research and practice, raise more funds for the development of service systems for the elderly, attach importance to innovation and cultivation and quicken the coordination of related polices.