The new age: in China, a Western more focus on elder care

Heying j. ZhanResidents of a home for the elderly in Nanjing, China.

In any debate here about the decision to move to one older person in some sort of focus, can virtually have a complaint in the comments section, often someone citing estate immigrants. Americans are too self-centered, too careerist, going to the criticism.

"Originally come from Argentina and in my culture we respect and honor for the elderly and that is shameful and selfish to put a parent in a home for the elderly", Maria Gonzalez of Cleveland wrote in the spring.

Dr. Kat Lieu's New York sounded just a little less dismissive. "Maybe is because I am an asiatico-estadounidense, but I never see very far from my parents," he wrote. "They were always there for me." "I will always be there for them." It would never consider the possibility of a nursing home for the elderly, she promised.

Of course, it is manifestly false that the Americans are in general somehow leaving their parents. The vast majority of our elders do not live in any type of institution and does not receive any aid paid, but rely, as always, in their families. Most members of the family are not cavalier about the decision to place a member of the family in a nursing home or assisted living, nor do walk away having done so.

I have often wondered: these attitudes really derive from the innate national or cultural differences? Or are a function of the form of operating in different societies, in which case may modify these values as societies change?

I thought it was fascinating, therefore, to find homes for the elderly are emerging in China, where the Confucian principle of "filial piety" held sway for thousands of years. Zhanlian Feng, researcher who only reported its findings on the growing of minority populations in U.S. nursing homes, emigrated from China in 1997 and graduate of Brown University, where he now teaches.

At the time he left his native land, the old ways still held. "Do if he spoke with an adult child and asked, ' If you get too sick to care at home for his mother or father, would consider some sort of House or installation?," surprises, "said in an interview.""It was a shameful idea." It was expected that adult children, especially children, to take in their parents. End of the story.

But when Dr. Feng returned to China in 2006 with a grant from national institutes of health research, "attitudes of the people have changed a lot in a few years," he said, "even in rural areas where you think traditions have a stronger suspension."

Contemporary China is experiencing many of the same demographic and socio-economic pressures such as United States, it was recently reported in the journal of the American Geriatrics Society. People are living much longer; family structures are changing; women have entered the labour force. With no national Medicare health insurance program and the policy of the only child that requires greater attention to shoulder responsibilities less Chinese families also face some challenges larger than ours.

There is no safety net, said Dr. Feng, and "has created a growing need to care for aging people." (A lot: now people approximately 112 million people aged 65 and a projected 329 million by 2040.)

Surveying seven Chinese cities, he found a proliferation homes for older persons, the vast majority of private number built and operate with negligible Government subsidies. For example, the ancient capital of Nanjing, had 27 houses in 1990 and 52 a decade later. In 2009, when Dr. Feng and his team began to investigate, the city had 148. Beijing and Tianjin showed a similar growth. Shanghai had 552 facilities.

It is probably not accurate to call the homes for the elderly. Residents younger and healthier than found in U.S. nursing homes, these facilities seem to be more similar to the independent or assisted living. The majority does not employ physicians or nurses.

Even so, they represent a seismic shift in the way that China is concerned about their elderly. "We are talking about changes in two generations," said Dr. Feng. "The younger generation wants more privacy" and prefer to live in nuclear families.

"One could imagine that the elderly would be annoying," was Dr. Feng. "But they will say," it would be rather alive by myself. I am very happy here. Do I chat with people, I can do activities with colleagues rather than spend each day with the family of my son.? "" Not sure that they are all so happy as they sound, but most people age have small pensions and "you can buy autonomy".

(A similar change took place in the United States in the 1940s with the advent of Social Security).

If attitudes on increased attention can change so quickly in China, it is difficult to believe that any industrialization society is immune. I hope that we will continue to hear from some quarters about how other cultures compared to the Americans without a heart, but not how Dr. Feng sees.

"Immigrants tend to beautify and mystify things in their countries of origin," he said. But when analyzing the way of life of older persons and families in the United States and China, "I see striking similarities".

Useful Paula is the author of "when the time comes: families with aging parents share their struggles and solutions."

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