Details of Research Outputs

The Aging Tsunami as it is often quoted to describe the worrying situations of rapid aging in China has not met with detailed planning in facilities upgrade and careful consideration in service models. Broad brushed central policies categorize services into home care, community care and institutional care and set policy goals at 90-7-3, representing the percentages of older people in receiving respective care. This leaves local officials helpless on how these ideals can be actualized. Some cities have inclined to build huge older people homes and pour resources into institutional care, forgetting the need for older people to be connected with the society. This paper based on the experiences of Hong Kong recommends an integrative model of social work services connecting institutional, community and home care into a seamless network for China. In the review of existing services in the cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu and Zhuhai, we discover that an integrated model cannot be implemented unless it is incorporated into town planning of the city. Town planners need to be briefed thoroughly on the merits of seamless care and related concepts including barriers free environment and older people friendly communities.