Respite centers sharing the load

A volunteer looks after children in one of the play rooms at the Linfen community service center in Shanghai's Jing'an district.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Youthful energy helps inspire aged residents

A care home on Yangqu Road in downtown Shanghai not only welcomes the older generation, but also children and teenagers.

The center, which opened in January to help families with elderly dependents, has play areas with slides, games and toys, and a reading room for older children to read and complete school assignments.

Plans are also in the works to start looking after students during the gap between when they finish class and when their parents get off work, according to Jiang Lili, director of the Linfen community service office in Jing'an district.

"We don't want this facility to be an isolated island just for the elderly," she said. "We hope to build it into a platform of openness and inclusion, so the elderly can spend their twilight years in an energetic atmosphere.

"It looks like a service for the children, but it benefits the elderly, too. On one hand, the children inspire a passion for life in the elderly, and on the other, the children's parents and grandparents can get some free time to do something for themselves."

Jiang added that older students who regularly use the reading room have volunteered to take care of children in the play rooms as well as spend time with elderly visitors, either chatting or leading recreational activities. During the winter holiday, they arranged a timetable so that two of them would be on duty every day, she said.

The center is managed by Aizhaohu, a Shanghai company that provides professional eldercare services. Zeng Chao, the company's director of operations, said the aim of the Yangqu Road facility is to encourage older people, who perhaps do not feel as useful in society as they once did, to take part more in activities rather than sit around or lay in bed.

Jiang said when construction of the care home began two years ago, some nearby residents objected, as some imagined it would bring a gloomy atmosphere to the community.

"But now people applaud this lively spot and the real benefit it brings," she added.