Photo: Yang Hui/GT
With a portable bathtub and a set of stretcher gadgets, 63-year-old Zhuang Mingjuan — who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, leaving her almost immobile — can finally enjoy a warm bath with help from a group of caregivers who bathe physically disabled seniors and elderly people with senile dementia in Shanghai.
After Zhuang became sick six years ago, she gradually lost her awareness and ability to care for herself.
With a thin figure, Zhuang's 65-year-old husband Tang Qinzhong could hardly bathe Zhuang in a comfortable and regular way. Zhuang's strong resistance to strangers' touch also scared off several domestic workers previously hired by Tang.
However, a new in-home bath service provided by a local care service company addresses such problems for many seniors and their families.
Lying on a stretcher in a 1-meter wide and 2-meter long portable and dismantlable bathtub, Zhuang regularly enjoys a warm bath given by three caregivers.
It was the seventh time that caregivers from Fortune Care Medical and Pension Services Co had given Zhuang her once-a-week bath service.
According to Tang, his wife's condition improved greatly since she started receiving the regular service. "She can now stand up and walk a few steps by herself with supporting appliances, which could hardly be achieved in the past," Tang said.
Inspired by a Japanese practice, the company has so far provided services to nearly 350 clients, with approximately 800 services delivered in total since April 2020.
Shanghai has an aging population with the city's
hukou (permanent household registration) reaching 5.18 million as of the end of 2019, accounting for 35.2 percent of the total locally registered population.
The city's disability rate of the elderly is between 8 and 9 percent; that is, there are about 400,000 to 450,000 disabled seniors in Shanghai. What's more, Shanghai has about 200,000 seniors suffering from senile dementia.
The demand for home care services is increasing in Shanghai especially for seniors who have difficulty looking after themselves.
Photo: Yang Hui/GT
Demanding procedure and hygienic issuesIn some old downtown compounds where water heaters and shower facilities cannot be installed, taking a bath can be a real issue for older people.
Although Zhang's suburban village house, located in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, is spacious enough for a bathtub, warm water from the heater in the bathroom cannot be connected to the bathtub in the bedroom.
The caregivers had to heat up water in a kettle and keep the bathtub at around 40 C during Zhuang's entire bath time.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, hygienic problems are also a major concern for clients. According to Lin Xueqin, Fortune Care's operations manager, caregivers prepare individual equipment, such as stretchers and waterproof pads, for each of their clients.
They disinfect the bathtub, stretcher and all other items before and after providing services.
Government supportTaking care of a bedridden senior is a huge economic burden for most families in Shanghai. Each in-home bath is priced at 450 yuan ($69.43), which is no small expense to local retirees whose pension is around 5,000 yuan per month on average.
The average expenditure on Zhuang's medical treatment and daily care amounts to 5,000 yuan per month. Tang receives a 20-percent-off discount by prepaying for the service, but a 360-yuan bath is still expensive for this elderly couple, as well as most other local seniors.
With the city's aging society growing, some sub-district governments purchase the services and offer them to local seniors at significantly lower prices.
In Changzheng town of Putuo district, around 1,500 seniors are unable to take care of themselves through the long-term care insurance pilot program rolled out nationwide in 2016, which focuses on basic daily care and medical care expenses for severely disabled people.
The town government began purchasing Fortune Care's in-home bath services at the end of 2019. It turned out to be well-received by seniors, so the local government purchased another 100 services last April and offered them to local seniors in need.
"Seniors can only enjoy one hour of basic daily care covered by the long-term care insurance plan, which is insufficient to give disabled seniors a real bath. However, the in-home bath requires at least one and a half hours given by at least three caregivers who also massage the seniors or give haircuts to them," said Liu Zhenming, a Gold Medal Consultant of Pension from Changzheng community service center.
Photo: Yang Hui/GT
Shying away from the serviceAlthough the authority found the service helpful, many seniors are still reluctant to be bathed by caregivers from the opposite sex.
"Although some seniors remain shy about the service, I believe they will eventually accept its benefits," said Liu, who noted that the sub-district will continue to purchase the service this year after Chinese New Year.
Tang has a relatively open attitude to male caregivers bathing his wife. "Women in childbirth also deal with male doctors, so there is nothing to be embarrassed about," Tang told the Global Times.