A Study On Mutual Assistance For The Aged In Urban Communities

With the continuous development of economy and society,ageing is getting deeper and deeper.Population ageing has become a product of modern socio-economic development and a major challenge for mankind in the 21 st century.Against the backdrop of rapid economic development and urbanisation,urban families are becoming smaller in size,and young people in cities are under enormous pressure to age,with the pattern of a couple having to support four elderly people becoming the norm.Obviously,it is unrealistic to rely solely on family care to solve the urban elderly problem,and the opening of large scale elderly care institutions in cities is not possible in a short time.As a result,a new type of community-based mutual care model has emerged.This model of "helping the elderly with the elderly" is based on the perspective of positive ageing,giving full play to the spare energy of the elderly,so that the elderly are no longer simply a party to be cared for,but a resource for the elderly,while effectively relieving the pressure of urban old age,saving the cost of old age and optimising social resources.Of course,mutual care in urban communities is still in the exploratory stage and no perfect system has been formed.Will the community recognize this model? Are the elderly willing to participate in mutual care? These are all questions that need to be explored.Urban mutual care is an innovative model of family-based and community-based mutual care,in which older people help and care for each other to meet their needs in old age.From the perspective of positive ageing,the author takes the M community mutual care model in Jinan City as a typical case,and obtains first-hand information through both questionnaires and in-depth interviews.The authors then analyse the reasons for the difficulties of the M community mutual care model: the outdated concept of elderly people and their lack of awareness of mutual help;the serious imbalance between supply and demand;the single content of services and the lack of guarantee of service quality;and the lack of top-level design by the government.Finally,based on the research findings,the authors propose countermeasures: strengthen publicity and guidance to change traditional concepts;adhere to the government’s leadership and improve laws and regulations;strengthen voluntary training to improve service levels;broaden funding sources and increase support,and so on.