The Chinese government is now encouraging the private sector to play a more active role in providing elderly care services. Shanghai has one of the largest elderly populations in the country, and local authorities have been trying to improve care for them.

77-year-old Wang Jingwen is receiving recovery training from a stroke in an elderly daycare center.

Before coming to Shanghai, she could only get the training at a hospital in her hometown,

But last November this day care center opened, and Wang's daughter brought her here, so that she could get it in her own neighborhood.

The daycare center offers an 8-hour service to elderly.

It's designed for elderly who cannot take care of themselves, but are not eligible for nursing homes.

Many of them live on their own, or their family members cannot look after them during the day.

A homecare service company manages the center.

The government pays an allowance, and the elderly only need to pay 200 yuan a month.

Lu Wen, Head of Weifangshicun Elderly Daycare Center, said, "The elderly like to come here, even in bad weather conditions. They are looked after by professional carers, and more importantly, they can socialize with other people, so they don’t feel alone."

Zhoujiadu Sub-district has a large elderly community.

More than one third of the population is over 60-years old.

Elderly care events are often held in the community center.

Community resident Xu Daofang said, "We welcome these lectures which teach us how to look after ourselves at home and live a healthy lifestyle. They are very useful."

The local authorities used to run such events by themselves, but they have now outsourced the work to a company.

Lu Mingjie, social worker of Zhoujiadu Subdistrict Elderly Care Office, said, "The government's sources for elderly care are limited, while the demand is growing fast. We are working under a project called 'nursing home without walls', which means government and social groups work together to provide a support system to the seniors, so that they don't need to walk out of the community or even their homes to receive good care."

In Shanghai, a number of companies are providing various kinds of services for the elderly, including meal-delivery, recovery training and shopping.

Yang Yiming, President of Pudong Pension Service Industry Assoc., said, "Shanghai authorities have guided social investors into elderly care services for about 5 years. They outsource the services to providers, and review the results at every stage. Through marketization, they can make the most of the resources to offer more professional services to the elderly."

And the government is planning to expand this model to more areas.

"China has the largest elderly population in the world. And the government is now encouraging and guiding different social investors to participate in the development of the elderly care services. Because every family would face this problem sooner or later, and it is not enough to just rely on the families or the government to solve."

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