China addresses care for increasingly aging population

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-07 23:21

Special welfare care centers are still in short supply around the country. The number of beds they offer could accommodate only about 1.16 percent of current elderly population.

In addition, the high fees charged by the centers has also prompted many seniors to live in their own homes.

In large rural areas, the majority of elderly residents still rely on their sons and daughters to care for them when they are old.

A private survey on the life quality of civilians in 2007 showed 66 percent of interviewed rural residents said they would rely on their children when they were old.

"The services for the old should be socialized," said Luo Jilan, the China Life Care Association's secretary-general.

"More efforts should be exerted to develop community care services for the old so as to make more aging people with mean financial power to enjoy the fruits of the social development," she said.

"But no matter the types of ways in offering services to the old, the most important is to make them enjoy all-round mental and physical care."

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