Category: UNIT 1

INSTITUTIONAL ELDERLY CARE IN CHINESE MARKET

‘The change I want to see’ Project

1 Introduction:

The aging of population and the only child policy gives more stress to children in taking care of elder people at home. However, there are several issues in Chinese elderly care market, such as lacking professional talents and employees, budget, regulatory system, and management standards. Therefore, I hope this market can undergo changes, address existing issues, and provide more abundant and high-quality services for the elderly.

2 Research

There are three types of elderly care in China, including care at home by family members or through the hiring of nursing workers, care in the community through government initiatives such as senior citizens activity centers or old people’s schools, and institutional care through old people’s homes.

Recent years, the demand of institutional elderly care has been increased. (Jiang,2021) There are two main reasons of it.

First, due to the aging of population, the proportion of people over 65 years old has been increased year by year. (DARMA, 2017) More and more old people needed to be taken care of.

Second, the only child policy gives more stress to children in taking care of elder people. Also, more and more people choose to become dink family. These kinds of old people may be not taken good care of at home. (Population forum, 2022)

3 Issue of institutional elderly care

There are several issues of institutional elderly care at present (Wang,2015):

  1. the income and treatment of caregivers are not high even below average in many countries. Also they usually have low social status.
  2. : Nursing homes often require long-term construction, but in addition to limited government funding support. limited private capital investment, institutional elderly care facilities have insufficient room for development.
  3. The quality of nursing homes varies greatly. And there have been news reports of nursing homes abusing elderly people.
  4. Most China’s institutional elderly care model mainly focuses on the basic life and health aspects of the elderly. Only a few high-end nursing homes provide services for the elderly’s spiritual and entertainment life.

Here are some photos of nursing homes in China. The top two represent basic nursing homes, some of which are supported by the government. The bottom two are of more advanced nursing homes that provide high-quality services, but the number of such facilities is relatively small.

4 The change I want to see

It is shown that the market size and forecast have been increasing.

So, I hope this market can undergo changes, address existing issues, and provide more abundant and high-quality services for the elderly.

  1. The service groups of different old people’s homes can be more precise，like those exclusively for women or artist old people’s home

5 Conclusion

In conclusion, the growing demand for institutional elderly care in China requires addressing several issues. To improve the market, there is a need for diverse services, precise service groups, suitable building sites, and convenient visitation for family members. These changes can lead to a better quality of care for the elderly and reduce stress for their family members.

Reference:

DARMA (2017) Perspective on the status quo and development hotspot of China’s pension industry, Perspective of China’s endowment industry present situation and developing status of hot hot industry | | | | pension | | | the old beds medical | | institutions – the health industry. Available at: https://www.cn-healthcare.com/articlewm/20170712/content-1015953.html?appfrom=jkj (Accessed: April 16, 2023).

Jiang Lei, Chen Xingyu, and Zhu Hong.” Spatial distribution of nursing homes in Chinese cities and their causes of differentiation.” ACTA GEOGRAPHICA SINICA 76.8 (2021).

iiMedia Research (2022) Research Report on the Development of Global pension Industry and Market Trends in China (2022-2023), Iimedia – leader in new economy industry research and analysis reports. Available at: https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/85974.html (Accessed: April 16, 2023).

Population forum (2022) “DINK” : An Unavoidable pain — Research on the development status and trend of Chinese “DINK” groups, Original Tronics document network. Available at: https://max.book118.com/html/2022/1019/5301220120010004.shtm (Accessed: April 16, 2023).

Wang Xiaoyu. Current situation and future development mode of nursing homes in China [J]. China Market, 2015 (51): 175-175.

BOX OF UNCERTAINTY

When I was first thinking of this project, I could only come up with something in fashion industry, which I was more familiar with. But our tutor Cecilia encouraged us to think of something not related to our major in the past and find something more personal. So I dig into my personal relationship and thoughts. There are five objects in my box– parametric design in fashion, traditional culture modernisation, therapy, relationship between generations and perfection.

This picture is showing that what the box is like when it is opened.

After the tutorial, I select two objects to process further research. One of them is parametric design in fashion. Another one is the combination of two objects. ‘ Therapy+Relationship between generations’.

1 Parametric Design in Fashion

The reason why I put this in my box is that I was working in the fashion industry as a PR. I found my job was mainly about celebrities and social influencers, which I was not satisfied. I thought I was looking forward to something more novel and creative. When I first learned about parametric design from Iris Van Herpen, I was really attracted. But I still have some uncertain about this technology, like how it would be presented and how it could be used in daily life fashion, etc.

After research from journals, books, social media, etc., I found out there are two types using parametric design in fashion. This diary will be the discussion of the development of them.

  • Category 1: Creating digital fashion product, which could be realized by combining with 3D printing technology.
I edit this video to illustrate how parametric design is used in digital fashion industry. （Some of the video cuts come from students’ assignments on social media, which are for study only.）

A journal: How to develop parametric design fashion products using 3D printing technology.

Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40691-021-00247-8

This journal clarified three characteristics about parametric design which are geometric structural, organic structural and atypical structural. These characteristics showed a logical structure of design language, which is not normally developed in fashion industry before. Also, due to the uncommon use of the material and technology, parametric fashion is usually created in a digital way, presenting in virtual fashion product or metaverse.

However, there are still some methods to realize the materialization of parametric fashion design at present. The most common way is to implement parametric designs with 3D printing technology, which aims to expand the realm of fashion products. This journal discovered what parametric design features can be simulated with 3D modeling and printing technology, what techniques can be used to produce fashion products using 3D printing technology, including the type of the printer and printing materials, is a functional instruction in this field.

Example: ‘Iris Van Herpen’ 22AW

Category 2: Develop a new pattern-making progress.

(Resource from social media, for study only)

For this category, there are limited information and research yet. So I found an article introduced a parametric design method, which can be realized by fitting the human body line, using some 3d software.

An article ：Parametric fashion based on Voronoi graphics

Link: http://www.fzxb.org.cn/CN/10.13475/j.fzxb.20210503707

This article presents a feasible solution to a novel pattern making method by applying parametric design, which is different way from the video I edit. This process concentrate on how to make clothes more fit for human body. So this inspired me that using the software, including Rihino and Grasshopper could realize various complex pattern-making processes, which are impossible for traditional method. This would extend the boundary of creating fashion product, which is more feasible in daily life.

2 Expectation Gap between Generation

This is a simple collage to present the balance between children’s personal pursuit and parents’ expectation.

Insight: I got a girlfriend last year. This might be the luckiest thing that happened in my life. But I am not able to share my happiness with my family. For lgbtq+ is hard to be accepted by parents in my culture. They generally expect their children to get married in a certain age. Also I found that most family has the problem that children’s personal pursuit is different from parents’ expectation. This situation could generally cause negative relationship between family members.

Therefore, I started an interview with my friends about how their family deal with this kind of problem.

Question 1: What disagreements would take place among different generations?

Answer: Marriage / college major/ career choosing / living place/ lifestyle

Question 2: How parents usually deal with the disagreements?

Answer: Generally, there are three types.

A. Fully trust and respect their children: patiently listening to their children, giving useful advice but not intervening children’s choices.

B. Create negative words and emotions towards their children, try to change their children’s mind through nagging.

C. Have strong desire to change their children’s mind, use mandatary ways like crying, screaming, mind controlling, threatening.

Question 3: How children deal with this problem?

Answer: Some of them try to communicate with their parents or prove themselves by action. Others may conceal the fact, telling lies, even have negative conflict.

According to the interview, it seems that both parents and children are not good at dealing with this expectation gap. This remind me another interest and uncertainty, which is therapy. Therapy is a quite useful way for people who are not able to deal with their own problems. I thought maybe learning about some principle and skill of therapy could help people deal with these negative relationship. So, I did some research about therapy.

Book: An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Skills and Applications (First section)

Link: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=p10NISZE27IC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=therapy+skills+&ots=CpZND2MKmM&sig=kRxku76zHxI94nB_XA44dw2MduU#v=onepage&q=therapy%20skills&f=false

Cognitive behaviour therapy is mainly about behaviour, feeling and thought. People’s perceptions affect their emotions, and people take action to “fix” them. The whole process is: When a situation comes up, you have a thought, the thought leads to a feeling, and then you take an action guided by that feeling. Therefore, people’s behaviour is usually guided by feelings or emotions. When expectation gap appears between generations, some negative actions are taking place not because of the divergence itself, but their own feelings about each other. Cognitive behaviour therapy could train family members concentrate on the situation itself and solve the problem without the bother of emotions.