A study on the localisation of home-based elderly services in Chinese urban communities
Date of Award
7-29-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Policy Studies (DPS)
First Advisor
Prof. YAU Yung
Abstract
At present, China's basic support and service system for the elderly is still in a state of continuous construction. Due to the diminishing effectiveness of the home-based model and the increasing costs of institutional care, these traditional models are unable to meet the increasing demand for elderly services in China. After considering the actual elderly service resources and learning from overseas experience, China is now more suitable for a model of home-based, community-supported home-based elderly services in communities. "Home-based elderly services in communities" is a form of elderly service under socialism with Chinese characteristics that is beneficial to all social elderly subjects (Wu, 2019).
China's central government has formulated a national policy on home-based elderly services in communities based on the demand for such services, each local government implements its own policy measures under the guidance of policy documents. The socio-economic, social construction, and cultural attributes of China's regions differ greatly, the uniform policies designed at the top level do not comprehensively take into account the specificities of each city itself. Each local government should take into account the actual situation of the local area, and supplement the details of the unified policy to formulate and implement it. The unified policy in the detailed formulation and implementation of the localised characteristics, the formation of localised characteristics. Accordingly, each city has gradually developed its own home-based elderly services in communities with its own characteristics.
In 2021, the State Council of China issued a policy document entitled "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Elderly Programme and Elderly Service System" to local governments. The Chinese government hopes to create a "happiness project" for the elderly in China. This policy document clearly states that the goal is to create a happy and satisfying retirement life for the elderly. However, most of the current research on home-based elderly services in urban communities focuses on elderly service policies and increasing financial inputs, which is an old-fashioned perspective, and the industry has generally neglected the policy goals of "happiness" and "satisfaction". Starting from this policy objective, this study makes use of the performance characteristics of full implementation, flexible implementation, experimental implementation and symbolic implementation in the "path-incentive" analysis framework. The criteria for "city choice" are constructed from the variables of "clarity of the path of home-based elderly services in communities" and "degree of incentive for local governments". Combined with local pre-survey data, four cities, namely Guangzhou, Zhoushan, Zhenjiang and Heyuan, were selected. Then, in-depth research was conducted on the types of home-based elderly services in communities to which they belonged.
This study uses the policy localisation theory, the hierarchy of needs theory, and combines the theoretical foundations of the inter-governmental relations theory to design self-administered scales, questionnaire questions, and interview questions. The analysis part of the study uses the first-hand information obtained from the questionnaire survey method and the interview analysis method to objectively analyse and study the overall home-based elderly services in urban communities in the four selected case cities from the perspectives of policy formulation, policy implementation and policy evaluation. The current situation of home-based elderly services in urban communities is assessed and summarised. The study then evaluates the effectiveness of the implementation of home-based elderly services in several cities in terms of the satisfaction of the elderly, and then ranks the effectiveness of the implementation of home-based elderly services in order to highlight the specific characteristics and influencing factors of the implementation of each type of home-based elderly services in each city. Ultimately, leveraging Guangzhou, a city renowned for its exemplary full implementation, as a benchmark, the study pinpoints disparities, challenges, and issues inherent in the varying aspects of home-based elderly care services across urban communities in three other case cities. Upon comparing these three cities, the underlying causes are discerned, and proactive recommendations are proffered to refine the administrative framework governing home-based elderly services, fortify localized policy research endeavors, bolster dynamic monitoring of service delivery, optimize intergovernmental communication, cultivate a heightened sense of critical awareness among administrative and frontline personnel, and amplify the central government's support for underserved cities. This will enable local governments to optimise their own urban programmes in the light of their own experiences in implementing these services, thus promoting the improvement of home-based elderly services in urban communities in China, increasing the satisfaction of the elderly in their retirement life, and contributing to the happiness of the elderly in their twilight years.
Language
English
Copyright
The copyright of this thesis is owned by its author. Any reproduction, adaptation, distribution or dissemination of this thesis without express authorization is strictly prohibited.
Recommended Citation
Guan, D. (2024). A study on the localisation of home-based elderly services in Chinese urban communities (doctoral thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from https://commons.ln.edu.hk/otd_tpg/27/
