Socialized care services for the aged population: System construction and support measures

doi:10.1007/s42524-022-0208-2

Front. Eng

2023, Vol. 10

Issue (2) : 339-353 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-022-0208-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Socialized care services for the aged population: System construction and support measures

Xitong GUO¹, Ting PAN¹, Shanshan GUO²(

)

¹. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150000, China
². School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 201620, China

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Abstract

Given the aging society, an increase in social demand, information- and communication technology-driven culture, and government policy support emerges to enable the development of the socialized care services system for the aged (SCSSA). The development of the SCSSA would be a significant step toward addressing China’s aging population. However, the construction of the SCSSA challenges the theories and methods of traditional elderly care service system construction. Specifically, the implementation path for such elderly care service policies is unclear, the necessary technological support is insufficient, and the mechanism for integrating intelligent information technology remains underexplored. Thus, this paper focuses on the needs of the elderly, grounded in the context of the changing elderly care service policies in China, and proposes a research paradigm that integrates system construction and support measure embedding. We then construct the original SCSSA, which includes “material + spirit + medical treatment + healthcare” and propose a method of optimization and iteration. Finally, we build the research framework of systematic support measures from the perspectives of policy reconstruction, institutional embeddedness, and technical support. Our work provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the construction and dynamic optimization of the SCSSA, thus making a significant contribution that will help China effectively cope with its aging society.

Keywords socialized care service for the elderly system construction support measure

Corresponding Author(s): Shanshan GUO

Just Accepted Date: 29 September 2022 Online First Date: 07 November 2022 Issue Date: 29 May 2023

Cite this article:

Xitong GUO,Ting PAN,Shanshan GUO. Socialized care services for the aged population: System construction and support measures[J]. Front. Eng, 2023, 10(2): 339-353.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fem/EN/10.1007/s42524-022-0208-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fem/EN/Y2023/V10/I2/339

Topics	Propositions	References
Reconstructing policies concerning the social pension service system	Reconstruction of the home-based community care policy should focus on the needs of the elderly, highlight the core of the policy, and identify the responsible institutions. Such work should start with the transformation of government functions and the professionalization of community service provision, further improving the supply structure. Then, a community platform should be built, and the participation of the home should be strengthened.	Qian (2015); Wang (2018)
	Based on the analysis of the situation of Shanghai’s “13th Five-Year Plan” care system for the elderly, this study provides ideas and suggestions for developing community care to improve the standardization and systematicness of Shanghai’s community care policies.	Zheng (2016)
	This paper provides recommendations to improve policies for providing better community and social services for the elderly.	Gu (2000)
Reconstructing policies concerning the home care service system	From the perspective of the changes and function development of traditional family-based care for the aged, this study suggests that reconstructing the public policy of family endowment in China should focus on policy principles and concepts, target objects, content frameworks, and operating mechanisms.	Li et al. (2019)
	This study proposes the framework of the “five-in-one” elderly care service policy system of loss-of-only-child families from the perspective of supply–demand coordination.	Zhou and Sun (2018)
	The aged population and the changes in housing patterns in China intensify the pressure on family support. Thus, current family policy system must be constructed on the basis of respecting traditions and grasping trends.	Peng and Hu (2016)
	Exploring reasons why home care functions are weakening and why traditional filial piety is declining, this paper proposes a comprehensive view of the aging population and discusses reconstructing the ethics of filial piety in response to the aging society.	Peng and Guo (2016)
Reconstructing policies concerning the institutional care service system	On the basis of the basic framework and methods of social policy analysis, this paper focuses on the analysis of the elderly service policy in Shanghai by reviewing the evolution of Shanghai’s institutional pension policies.	Yao (2016)
	This study identifies the discordance of the institutional endowment policy system, either inside or outside the system, by empirically analyzing 68 policy samples that were obtained from international and national websites.	Long (2017)

Tab.1 Research on the reconstruction of the elderly care service policy

Tab.2 Research on information technology support for the care service system for the aged

Topics	Propositions	References
Service standards and regulations	Standardization of institutional elderly care services: Current institutional care services for the elderly have a low service capability that can barely satisfy the needs of the elderly.	Yang et al. (2017)
	Standardization of community home care services: Although the professional standards of care institutions and care providers have been gradually clarified, problems exist in implementation, supervision, and management.	Li and Ding (2014);Tang (2018a)
	Standardization of integrated medical and healthcare services: In the two major service systems for elderly care (medical service and healthcare service), problems exist in the connection of quality standards, service content, and fees.	Ma and Wang (2017)
Discipline and talent construction	Construction of service talent: China should strengthen service training, improve the talent system, formulate incentive policies of talent training, and improve the social status of practitioners.	Lea et al. (2015)
Discipline and talent construction	Construction of medical talent: China should strengthen the construction of geriatric clinics and polyclinics for the elderly, construct a multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment team for geriatric medical care, improve the professional qualification certification system for geriatric care, and train senior talents.	Kang (2013)
Service pricing	Private capital institutions implement differentiated pricing as their pricing strategy for elder care services according to the market size, competitive effects, self-positioning, and government pricing.	Forder and Allan (2014)
	Government agencies implemented government-guided prices as a pricing strategy for elder care services.	Tang (2018b)
	Home care services implemented asymmetric service pricing when they provide differentiated services.	Zheng et al. (2019)
Payment policies	China’s retirement pension system has some problems, such as the fragmentation of the content structural system and the imbalance between the responsibilities and powers of the hierarchical system. The cost of elderly care services is paid by multiple entities in Japan.	Ding (2014);Morikawa (2014)
Socializing organization collaboration	This study centers on community and emphasizes multi-subject cooperation of communities, governments, and social organizations.	Ban (2017)
	Embedding volunteer departments into the structure of the country, market, and society promotes collaboration among multiple entities to provide professional and diverse care services for the elderly.	Verhoest and Mattei (2010);Yan and Peng (2018)
	The supply of elderly care services is led by the government and involves the participation of the market, social organizations, families, and other entities that interact, connect, and support each other to realize the transformation of the “holistic governance” of the aging society.	Johansson (2014)

Tab.3 Research on social support measures in the care service system for the aged

Fig.1 Original SCSSA.

Fig.2 Process of SCSSA iteration and optimization.

Fig.3 Research framework of policy reconstruction.

Fig.4 Research framework of information technology support.

Fig.5 Research framework for the closed loop of the institutional embeddedness dynamic.

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