On December 1st, in Mingxi Yixin Nursing Home in Xikou Town, Fenghua District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, 72-year-old Grandma Wang was pulling the research experts and couldn't stop smiling. "Nowadays, the food in the cafeteria is both soft and flavorful, and it's reassuring to live here. Look at the newly installed sprinkler heads on the roof. Firefighters even came to teach you how to use them!" " She pointed at the senior citizens' cafeteria and the fire sprinkler system on the ceiling, her face beaming with a smile.

On that day, Professor MAO Shoulong, the president of the Public Health Service Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society, led a team led by Zhang Lianshan, the general director, Wang Jinling, the vice president, and other responsible persons. They coordinated experts and scholars from institutions such as Tsinghua University Changgung Hospital, Shifang Geriatric Hospital in Sichuan Province, and the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China. Under the guidance of the relevant responsible persons of Xikou Town, We visited this rural nursing home together, which was transformed from an old school building. The research team delved into the front line to conduct on-site investigations into the "Xikou Practice" of grassroots elderly care services, exploring feasible paths to enhance the quality of rural elderly care.

Old School Renovation: A "Happy Nursing Home" in the Mountains

The predecessor of Mingxi Yixin Nursing Home was a village primary school built in Mingxi Village in the 1990s. After the school moved in 2013, the village felt sorry for the empty houses and thought that the elderly in the village had many needs for elderly care services. So they took the initiative to connect with the town and the civil affairs bureau and transformed it into a nursing home. The village head of Mingxi Village recalled that the nursing home was registered as a non-profit enterprise in 2015. Now it covers an area of 688 square meters and has a construction area of 488 square meters. 56 beds have been added to the two main buildings. Currently, there are 33 elderly people living there, and 5 local and nearby village villagers are employed to take care of the daily life of the elderly.

This nursing home hidden in the mountains, backed by 19,000 mu of mountain forests, is located in Mingxi Village, a large village in Xikou Town that borders Yuyao and Shengzhou. It not only boasts historical sites such as the Mingxi Ancient Road and the Jinshan Covered Bridge, but has also been successively awarded the titles of "Hygienic Village of Zhejiang Province" and "Civilized Village of Ningbo City". This year, the higher authorities allocated funds specifically to renovate the fire sprinkler system and refurbish the senior citizens' canteen. Now, the elderly are much safer when they eat and live. The village head introduced that in the first five years, the nursing home could receive a certain amount of government subsidies every year. Coupled with the standardized charging standards, it became a "safe haven" for the elderly in the surrounding villages. "There are no nursing homes in nearby villages. Many elderly people come here specifically to live, all saying that the charges are fair and the care is considerate."

Expert Home Visit: Bringing "Health services" to your bedside

"Grandma, please stick out your tongue and let me see how your sleep has been recently?" " Pulse diagnosis, tongue examination, medication assessment, detailed inquiry... On the day of the research, a cross-disciplinary expert team from Beijing, Hangzhou and Ningbo set up a "free medical consultation booth" on the spot at the nursing home, providing one-on-one medical consultation services to the elderly there.

"Before, it took a long walk to get to the town for medical treatment. Now, experts have come to the bedside!" " Grandpa Zhang, who suffers from knee joint degeneration, specially praised the nursing bed in the room during his visit, saying, "The height of this bed is just right. I can get up slowly by myself. The corners of the table are also rounded, so I'm not afraid of getting hurt." The research team found that the beds and table heights in the nursing home are all designed according to the physical functional needs of the elderly, so that they can stand up and sit or lie down. Every detail of the construction is filled with "elderly-friendly warmth".

Suggestions and Strategies: To Take Rural Elderly Care to a higher Level

The construction of Yixin Nursing Home is quite standard and its management is also relatively standardized. Considering the common situation of "multiple diseases coexisting" among rural elderly people, in addition to specialized management, it is also necessary to enhance doctors' general practice thinking, increase comprehensive elderly assessment, and improve the level of health management and rational drug use. During the research, Yang Zunqiang, the director of Shifang Geriatric Hospital in Sichuan Province, put forward suggestions.

Regarding the dietary and nutritional issues of the elderly, President Yang also suggested: "We can seek remote guidance from nutritionists or conduct regular research to customize personalized nutritional diet plans for the elderly with special needs, improve the level of dietary and nutritional management, and at the same time increase popular science education to enhance the awareness of self-management among the elderly." In addition, the village head also expressed his expectations: "I hope that the higher-level government departments and social benevolent enterprises can pay more attention to the construction of rural elderly care facilities, send more experts to provide guidance, and offer more support for the construction of auxiliary facilities, so that the elderly in the village can also enjoy 'professional elderly care'."

These suggestions are precisely concrete responses to the deployment of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to "improve a population service system covering the entire population" and "promote the extension of public services to the grassroots level and rural areas". President MAO Shoulong stated that rural elderly care is a "heartwarming piece of the puzzle" for rural revitalization. The practice of "turning waste into treasure and providing policy support" like that of Mingxi Yixin Nursing Home is a vivid demonstration of health empowering rural revitalization. In the future, through the multi-party collaboration of "national social organizations (societies) + local governments + medical institutions + caring units", more rural elderly people can enjoy "not only elderly care" It is even more important to enjoy a healthy and peaceful old age.

Under the warm sun, the elderly are basking in the sun and chatting in the courtyard of the nursing home, with layers of mountains and forests in the distance. This research not only documents the "present tense" of rural elderly care, but also sketches a warm picture of "healthy Silver Bell" and "rural revitalization" resonating in unison.