Beijing plans to subsidize home-based elderly care

Beijing is drafting plans to subsidize people who are willing to take care of their parents at home, as the capital city faces a shortage of professionals and services to cater to the elderly.

The policy mainly targets around 600,000 elderly people who are disabled or suffer from dementia, according to a press conference held during the city's annual parliamentary session.

Li Hongbing, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, said the government is figuring out how to supervise the policy's implementation, and how to keep it effective and simple.

Regulations regarding the policy will be introduced this year, before the policy is piloted in some communities, Li added.

Beijing's home-based old-age care regulation, the country's first local legislation of its kind, became effective on May 1, 2015. It stipulates that people should offer economic and practical support as well as "spiritual consolation" to the elderly.

But the city still faces daunting challenges in meeting the vast demand for old-age care. The problems include about 1,600 communities that lack service facilities, as well as a need for improvements in management at some existing care centers.

Another pressing issue is a dire lack of trained personnel to cater for the nearly 3 million aged people in Beijing who require care. Of the aging population, nearly 600,000 people suffering from a disability or dementia are finding basically no professional help available.

Liu Weilin, the deputy secretary general of the Beijing People's Congress, said the government subsidy is only designed to support children who take care of parents, and does not run against traditional values like filial piety.

The proposed policy could make up for the shortage of nurses for aged care, while also satisfying the mental needs of the elderly, according to a government report.