At about 11 o'clock every day, the food aid in Shaping Village, Chengguan District, floated out of the fragrance of food, and 78-year-old Li Guilan brushed her face to pick up the meal; At about 12 o'clock, the elderly Yan Guifen in Qilihe District pressed the smart caller, and 10 minutes later, community medical staff came to the door for consultation; At 15 o'clock, in the "Flower Blossom University for the Elderly" in Jiaojiawan East Community, drums and laughter were intertwined......
These scenes are an ordinary day for the elderly in Lanzhou's community, but they hide the wisdom of the city to solve the problem of aging. From "living together" to "quality enjoyment", from "worrying alone" to "worrying freely", Lanzhou's community pension innovation not only solves the problems of the elderly's life, but also makes them feel the warmth and care of the city.
By the end of 2024, there were 1.0147 million elderly people aged 60 and above in Lanzhou, accounting for 22.87% of the permanent population. In the face of the challenges of aging and empty nesting, Lanzhou takes "doorstep care" as the core and creates a "five-in-one" service system of facilities, science and technology, medical care, spirituality and policy, so that the elderly can go from "pension" to "enjoy the elderly", and draw a new picture of people's livelihood of "having fun and being safe for the elderly".
Weaving dense service network communities delineate the radius of happiness in a quarter of an hour
"In the past, when I was alone at home, I always made do with cooking, but now I go downstairs for 5 minutes to the canteen for the elderly, and it only costs more than 10 yuan for a nutritious meal with meat and vegetables, soft and rotten, and I can eat comfortably and at ease." In the happy canteen of Yanbin Community, Yanyuan Street, Chengguan District, 78-year-old Li Guilan was eating a delicious lunch while reading to reporters. Every time it is time to eat, you can always see many elderly people like Grandma Li, who either come together or are delivered by the staff to the door, their faces full of satisfaction.
Such a warm scene is the epitome of the effectiveness of Lanzhou's "quarter-hour pension service circle". Up to now, the city has built 64 township (street) comprehensive elderly care service centers, 210 community day care centers for the elderly, and 510 village-level mutual aid happiness homes, with elderly care and meal assistance, forming a backbone network of elderly care services covering urban and rural areas and connecting in an orderly manner. According to the statistics of the Civil Affairs Bureau, these service facilities provide an average of more than 500,000 services to the elderly every month, turning "enjoying elderly care services at home" from a vision to a reality.
As the main urban area of Lanzhou City, the exploration of Chengguan District is particularly eye-catching. All 25 street comprehensive elderly care service centers in the district have been equipped with intelligent service terminals, serving more than 16.726 million people since their operation. At the Railway Dongcun Street Comprehensive Elderly Care Service Center located in Sanyi Building, the reporter saw that 60 elderly care beds are clean and comfortable, and 59 elderly people with an average age of 82 years old live here.
"Our 25 caregivers are busy like a 'trot' every day, but seeing the satisfied smiles of the elderly is worth it." Wang Yan, the person in charge of the center, said that the nursing team implements a 24-hour duty system and conducts three rounds every night to ensure the safety of the elderly. Fan Shuqin, who has lived in the house for four years, took the reporter's hand and said: "The facilities here are good, the caregivers are more caring than my granddaughter, and I am now strong and happy every day." ”
In the Lanmian Factory community in Xigu District, the 1,058-square-meter comprehensive elderly care service center has embarked on the road of special meal assistance. Combining the characteristics of the diet of the elderly, the center formulates 52 sets of nutritional menus according to the solar terms, with shepherd's purse dumplings in spring and mutton warmers in winter, which is both in line with the season and healthy. At the same time, the center has set up a food delivery team of 8 people to provide door-to-door meal delivery services for the elderly with limited mobility in the jurisdiction, delivering an average of 30 to 50 meals per day, covering more than 90% of the disabled and semi-disabled elderly in the community.
"Thanks to them, I don't have to worry about eating anymore." Uncle Zhang, a 92-year-old man who lives alone, said that every time the food delivery person patiently tells him to eat while it is hot, he will also check the water and electricity situation at home, which makes his heart warm.
Technology empowers the elderly to protect and build a solid line of defense
"Ding Bell Bell-" At noon some time ago, the alarm of the home care service platform of the Elderly State in Dunhuang Road Street, Qilihe District suddenly sounded. He Anqi, a platform staff, immediately checked the system and found that it was Yan Guifen, an elderly man in his 80s in Siye Community, who triggered the smart gateway one-click helper.
"Grandma Yan, don't worry, we'll be there soon." He Anqi communicated with the elderly through the system while contacting community staff and medical staff to rush to the scene.
It turned out that when Grandma Yan was taking care of her second son with a blood disease at home, she suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous, unable to get up, and pressed the call button on the bedside in a hurry. Fifteen minutes later, community staff and medical staff rushed to the home and promptly examined and treated Grandma Yan.
The reporter learned that since 2023, Dunhuang Road Street has installed smart gateway one-click helpers (bedrooms), one-click call wall stickers (bathrooms) and infrared human sensing equipment for 14 elderly families in the jurisdiction who are elderly, living alone, and disabled.
"These devices are connected to our platform in real time, and once the elderly encounter an emergency, they can press the button to contact us as soon as possible." He Anqi introduced that in addition to emergency call equipment, the platform is also equipped with smart wearable call watches, flood alarms, gas detectors, etc. for some elderly people. Smart watches can monitor the heart rate, sleep and exercise data of the elderly in real time, and will automatically alarm once there is an abnormality; Water immersion and gas detectors can detect potential safety hazards such as water leakage and gas leakage at home in a timely manner, and build a solid safety defense line for the elderly living alone.
In Lanzhou, the scene of technology-enabled elderly care is far more than that. In the "Beautiful Lanzhou Happiness Canteen" on Caochang Street Street, the face-swiping payment terminal has become a new helper for the elderly. In the happy canteen of Shaping Village Community, the intelligent self-service meal equipment makes the elderly shine. Diners only need to check in and bind the plate, select the dishes independently, and put the plate on the intelligent settlement device, and the system can automatically identify the dishes and prices, and realize the settlement of the meal.
"In the past, you had to queue up for manual settlement to cook, but now you can choose your own dishes and settle by yourself, and you can take a little less of each dish, taste a few more flavors, and have a lot more choices." Liu Qiaozhen, a community resident, shared his experience.
The comprehensive service platform for smart elderly care in Anning District has shown stronger service capabilities. The platform integrates the elderly care service resources in the jurisdiction, and establishes exclusive service files for 734 "three noes", extremely poor, disabled and elderly elderly, providing door-to-door meal assistance, medical assistance, cleaning assistance and other services. According to platform data, since the beginning of this year, a total of 42,000 service tickets have been completed, with an average response time of no more than 20 minutes. "Technology is not a cold tool, but to make the elderly feel real peace of mind." The relevant person in charge of the Anning District Civil Affairs Bureau said that in the future, the platform functions will be further upgraded to allow smart elderly care services to cover more elderly people. The deep integration of medical care and modern services such as community family doctor contracting allow the elderly to enjoy basic convenient medical services at their doorstep.
Spiritual nourishment and rejuvenation of the university for the elderly light up a wonderful life
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Accompanied by a cheerful rhythm, in the African drum class of the "Flower Blossom University for the Elderly" in Jiaojiawan East Community, 65-year-old Wang Yiqiong and his classmates were following the teacher's instructions and carefully tapping the drum head. Although there are beads of sweat on her face, Wang Yiqiong's eyes are full of focus and vitality.
Since its opening in 2023, it has offered 8 courses including dance, vocal music, African drums, Baduanjin, and calligraphy, with a tuition fee of only 80 to 200 yuan per semester, which is very popular with the elderly.
"Our original intention of running a school is to allow the elderly to enjoy high-quality educational resources at their doorstep and enrich their spiritual life." Wang Jie, secretary of the community party committee, said that in order to make the course more suitable for the needs of the elderly, the community will regularly solicit students' opinions and adjust the curriculum and teaching time.
In Lanzhou, there are many spiritual nourishment platforms like "Blossom University for the Elderly". Yanxi Road Community has organized nearly ten courses in various community schools for the elderly, and Lantong Community has set up 13 elderly clubs such as choirs and dance troupes, with weekly courses full of schedules, and regular activities such as chess competitions, calligraphy exhibitions, and community games; Wujiayuan Community Elderly Care Service Center offers free vocal music classes, calligraphy classes, ballroom dance classes, and uses traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Double Ninth Festival to hold theatrical performances; The Yintan Garden community has built a comprehensive cultural activity center to provide the elderly with an activity space for piano, chess, calligraphy and painting...... These rich and diverse spiritual and cultural activities have comprehensively upgraded Lanzhou's community pension from material security to spiritual enjoyment, so that the elderly can gain a sense of belonging in social interaction and enjoy their old age in happiness.
Policies accurately support multiple models to activate the vitality of elderly care
"To do a good job in community pension, it is inseparable from the support of policies and the participation of social forces." The relevant person in charge of the Lanzhou Civil Affairs Bureau said in an interview with reporters that in recent years, Lanzhou has successively issued a series of policy documents related to pension, providing a solid guarantee for the development of community pension from the aspects of facility construction, financial subsidies, and talent training.
The "8+3+1" elderly meal assistance service model in Anning District is a typical case of policy implementation. The district has built a meal assistance network covering the whole district by renovating 8 demonstration sites for the elderly, building 3 demonstration institutions of "elderly care services + meal assistance for the elderly", and building 1 community embedded elderly care service facility.
"We give a subsidy of 3 yuan per meal coupon to the meal assistance site, and at the same time guide social forces to participate in the operation, so that the elderly can eat affordably and the enterprise can also be sustainable." According to the relevant person in charge of the Anning District Civil Affairs Bureau, at present, the elderly in the district serves more than 2,000 elderly people per day, which has been widely recognized by the masses.
The active participation of social forces has injected strong impetus into Lanzhou community elderly care. Winbond Beautiful Home Elderly Care Group, Ruiyuan Health Care and other professional elderly care institutions have undertaken and operated a number of street comprehensive elderly care service centers, bringing professional management experience and service teams; Lanzhou Rural Commercial Bank has also cooperated with some communities to develop online ordering systems and face-swiping payment terminals, which solves the problem of "difficult ordering and payment" for the elderly; Many caring enterprises have also donated materials to elderly care service facilities and carried out public welfare activities, forming a diversified elderly care pattern of "government-led, social participation, and family linkage".
Our reporter Yan Na intern Miao Caixia's text/photo