Access to elder care eased for childless seniors

Ten nursing homes and an NGO have jointly launched China's first welfare program to help seniors, who lost their only child, to enter nursing homes.

Xu Kun, the founder of NGO Beijing Love Delivery Hotline, told the Global Times that they can serve as a guarantor for those seniors if they need to be admitted to a nursing home.

"This program is the first in China. If seniors don't have a guarantor, nursing homes wouldn't give them a place," she said on Monday.

"If they can't afford expenses such as emergency medical care, we'll help them find funding to support them," she said.

The 10 homes are the first batch, and the program will expand further among the 400-plus nursing homes in Beijing in the future.

Shi Hui, 50, whose only son died of lymphatic cancer last year at the age of 21, said that learning of this program has given her more confidence in the future.

"I don't plan on going to a nursing home as I'm still young and can take care of myself," she said, "but this program gives me assurance for when I'm old."

Wang Fang, vice director of the Beijing Sunset Glow Nursing Home, one of the 10 which launched the program, said previously they could not admit seniors who lost their only child.

"If a senior wants to enter our home, they must have a guarantor to sign the agreement, or else we can't accept them, that's the regulation set by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs," she told the Global Times.

"The guarantor serves as a contact person if there's an emergency and can support financially when the senior is short of money," she said.

She added that they set up a separate home for those seniors in Mentougou district, away from their main home in Daxing district.

"Because those people are generally not that old and can take care of themselves, we mainly get them together, and organize some activities so they don't feel lonely," she said.

Ma Li, member of the National People's Congress education, science, culture and health commission, said all parents who were born after the 1950s will face a similar problem with those who lost their only child now.

"This program can help a small number of people, compared with the large population. The ultimate solution must be government action; the communities should establish a service system for old people," she told the Global Times.

Every year China has 76,000 new families who lost their only child, and the number of those families has exceeded one million in China, according to the Year Book of Health in the People's Republic of China 2010.

Beijing has about 8,000 senior people who lost their only child, according to Beijing Family Planning Association.