Sunday, June 3, 2007

Answers to Questions


Several questions were posted on this blog. I'll do my best to respond to them!
1. BBF: Decades ago? Couldn't you have just said years ago? Even as a gerontologist, I find years ago easier to acknowledge then decades!
2. M&L: Yes, Mom knows how to post to a blog!
3. Cobosn: regarding differences between the visit to the Beijing Retirement Home (BRH) and our system of residential/skilled care in the US: the BRH is a type of social welfare institution. The requirements for admittance to this home are an age of 60+, free of contagious disease or mental disorder, capable of self-care, and able to live in a group setting. The director did tell us that they were debating whether to open the admissions policy to people with disabilities or in need of more care.

My understanding is that the government does support different types of institutional care for the elderly with varying degrees of disability, including lodging and nursing homes. These homes may be government or private institutions, and variations in-between.

From The Development of China's Undertakings for the Aged by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, provided to us during the National Committee on Aging lecture: "By the end of 2005, there were 39,546 institutions providing services for seniors, such as social welfare institutions for the aged, elderly people's homes, senior citizens' lodging houses, and nursing homes for the aged, with a total of 1,497 million beds, including 29,681 rural elderly people's homes with 895,000 beds."

Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

cphil said...

The information you are providing is great, and the numbers (of everything)are amazing.

Are the people you are visiting there familiar with our systems and institutions here?

I can imagine that your debriefing once you return will be a long process.

Thanks for sharing and continue to enjoy your adventure.

cps