Childless Elderly Couples Turned Away from Nursing Homes
October 12, 2013
![By the end of 2011 there were 2.48 million people aged 60 or above in Beijing. About 8,000 of them were parents whose single child had died, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning. [nipic.com]](/res/womenofchina/1310/13100552.jpg "By the end of 2011 there were 2.48 million people aged 60 or above in Beijing. About 8,000 of them were parents whose single child had died, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning. [nipic.com]") |
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By the end of 2011 there were 2.48 million people aged 60 or above in Beijing. About 8,000 of them were parents whose single child had died, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning. [nipic.com] |
Wang Jin'e, 77, has been looking for a nursing home for 10 years. She lost her only son 15 years ago, and without a legal guardian to sign permission forms and act as a guarantor, Wang and her husband have been repeatedly rejected from nursing homes.
"After my son died of a heart attack, my husband and I lost the only person we could depend upon and our hope for any sort of life. It has been a nightmare for us," said Wang. "None of the nursing homes in Beijing are willing to take the risk of accepting us."
Aside from bereft couples who have lost their only child, there are also elderly people who never had children or whose children live abroad.
Beijing citizen Ding Yu (alias), 83, has never married and now lives alone. She has been searching in vain for a nursing home to take her in.
A Beijing nursing home employee explained that they need the residents to have a legal guardian who can guarantee that payments will be made on time, especially in light of rising commodity prices. Legal guardians are also needed to sign off on medical procedures.
Earlier this year, 10 nursing homes in Beijing, led by a nonprofit organization, agreed to adjust the guarantee policy and put aside 500 beds for elderly people who have lost their only child.
Xu Kun, founder of the organization Beijing Love Delivery Care Center for Seniors, said that her original idea was to establish a nursing home center dedicated to elderly people who have lost their only child. But the high land prices in Beijing forced her to alter her plan.
"The consultancy hotline my organization opened last March has received many calls, complaining about how difficult it is to apply to live in nursing homes simply because of a lack of a legal guardian," she said.
To help these people, the organization has agreed to act as guarantors for these elderly people.
Besides attempts in Beijing, lawmakers and political advisers in Heilongjiang, Hunan and Hebei provinces, as well as in Shanghai, have also called for better social welfare for childless parents.
Zhang Yayu, a deputy to the Shanghai People's Congress, proposed that the government raise subsidies, remove legal obstacles, and provide mental health care via social entities.
According to the 2010 China Health Statistic Yearbook issued by the Ministry of Health, it is estimated that at least 76,000 only children aged from 15 to 30 years old die every year, leaving their elderly parents childless.
There are still no official figures on how many families in China have been bereft of their only child, but it is an indisputable fact that the group is growing.
By the end of 2011 there were 2.48 million people aged 60 or above in Beijing. About 8,000 of them were parents whose single child had died, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning.
(Source: society.people.com.cn/Translated and edited by womenofchina.cn)
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