Research On The Problems And Countermeasures Of Home Care Services In Urban Communities

With the acceleration of China's aging population and the changes in family structure,the younger generation has been overburdened by the traditional family cares.In addition,public pension institutions have been unable to meet the needs of the elderly,and the price of the private pension institutions is too high.Therefore,the urban community-based housing support is considered to be the most feasible way of old-age care at present.The community-based old-age care combines the family support with institutional pension.It provides day care,food,bath,cleaning,medical care and psychological counseling to the elderly at home.This paper analyzes the main problems existing in community-based housing support of China's urban areas by visiting the aged at 22 Communities in Xi'an and their 48 questionnaires.First of all,the shortage of community pension funds including the lack of government investment,the low utilization of pension and the increasing demands of the elderly.Secondly,the mismatch between demand and supply for the elderly people in community,which refers to demand exceeds supply and supply fails to meet the demand.Thirdly onefold service,not meeting the various requirements,perfunctoriness,and low participation of the elderly.Finally,the old-age care market is chaotic and lacks occupation standards.According to the research data,we know that the main reasons for these problems are the incomplete financing mechanism;irregular management of community-based old-age care;the delayed information exchanges for the ageing service and less professionals.By means of interview and questionnaire research with documentation,this paper put forwards some reasonable and practical suggestions which arise from the theory of welfare pluralism,Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Performance Appraisal.Such as increasing support for the community pension fund and the variety of suppliers for the old-age care,establishing an intelligent service platform and the database for the elderly,integrating reso urces from all sides,introducing and stimulating professionals for the housing support,improving the regulations on old-age care in the community,setting up an evaluation system,attaching the importance to the third-party supervision.