Chao News client reporter Zheng Xiangzhen.
The Second Social Welfare Center of Changshan County, Quzhou City. Photo courtesy of Changshan County Civil Affairs Bureau.
Chinese New Year, a symbol of reunion and festivities, is a great time for the vast majority of people to come together as a family and share the joy of family.
However, for the extremely poor, as a group that is easily overlooked, they often face difficulties in life and spiritual loneliness, and it is difficult to spend this traditional festival with their families for various reasons.
In the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival, what is the situation of the elderly in the mountainous areas? With this question, a few days ago, the reporter came to Qiuchuan Town, Changshan County, Quzhou City, walked into the Second Social Welfare Center of Changshan County, visited and personally felt the living conditions of the elderly in extreme poverty, as well as the care and warmth of all walks of life for them.
The elderly are in extreme poverty and enjoy living in a "new home" to celebrate the New Year. Photo by Luo Wenfu.
As the main position of the county's special poverty support, the second social welfare center of Changshan County covers an area of 19 acres, with 5 apartment buildings for the elderly, 1 comprehensive building, 269 beds for the elderly, and 12 supporting entertainment rooms.
The environment here is much better than the original one, and the food is very much to my liking. Look at this room, people who don't know think I'm staying in a hotel. During this festival, the New Year's flavor is very full! In the spacious and bright room, the old man Fu Jizhong said with a smile. Not long after moving in, he was very satisfied with the environment.
Mr. Fu lives in a double room, which is also the standard nursing room of the Second Social Welfare Center of Changshan County. The reporter saw that the suite includes bedrooms, bathrooms and balconies, air conditioners, TVs, water heaters, nursing beds, tables and cabinets, barrier-free handrails and other hardware facilities are also readily available.
According to the staff, in order to create a high-level and warm "family-style pension", the center has carried out smart supervision, using the "Changshan Xiaoyan" smart pension service application, equipped with more than 120 monitoring. At the same time, it has also established medical strategic cooperation with the Changshan County Health Bureau, and opened an infirmary in the center, which is arranged by the Changshan County Medical Community to arrange doctors and be on duty 24 hours a day, and open a "green channel" for urgent and serious patients to seek medical treatment, so as to provide all-round protection for the physical and mental health of the extremely poor and ensure "worry-free medical treatment".
In the past, most of the elderly people in extreme poverty were arranged in private support institutions in various towns and villages. However, these institutions generally lack professional management and service personnel, the level of management and care is not high, and the relevant responsible persons do not have a strong sense of discipline and law, and there are many integrity risk points, which seriously affects the happiness of people living in extreme poverty. Fu Liangshou, head of the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Changshan County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of the county party committee, told reporters that through special supervision, the group urged and promoted the county civil affairs bureau to do a solid job in the rescue and support of people in extreme poverty, and strengthened the responsibility of ensuring the bottom line.
In order to further improve the living environment and support conditions for the elderly in extreme poverty in mountainous areas, since the second half of 2023, Changshan County has innovated the regionalized centralized support model for extremely poor people, with a cumulative investment of 1600 million yuan to build three regional social welfare centers, the original scattered and socially supported elderly people in extreme poverty will be concentrated in the new social welfare centers, and the subordinate units of the civil affairs department will carry out service management, so as to achieve 100% "public construction and public operation" of the support institutions, with standardized management, intensive security, and professional services, solve the outstanding problems in the field of special poverty support, and comprehensively improve the level of happiness and care for the extremely poor.
The elderly are provided with special poverty and are admitted to the No. 2 Social Welfare Center of Changshan County. Photo by Luo Wenfu.
On December 28, 2023, the Second Social Welfare Center of Changshan County was officially opened, and more than 30 elderly people in extreme poverty were the first to check in and move into a "new home".
Starting from the first batch of transfers, it took only 10 days to complete the centralized transfer of all the extremely poor people in 11 special poverty support institutions. Yang Junhui, member of the party group and deputy director of the Changshan County Civil Affairs Bureau, told reporters that as of January 2024, the county's special poverty support institutions have been reduced by 11, and 414 extremely poor people have been provided with regional centralized support, realizing the "zero" of private institutions' special poverty support, and solving the long-standing outstanding problems such as difficult management, difficult to ensure safety, risky clean government, and low service level.
When he was about to leave, the reporter met several elderly people who were chatting happily in the corridor of the social welfare center, and it turned out that they were preparing to go to the multi-purpose hall for the New Year.
During the Chinese New Year, the center will show movies every day. Although you can watch it in your own room, you still have to get together to watch a movie! The old people in front of me were full of happy and satisfied smiles on their faces, and their laughter and conversation were intertwined, as if a New Year picture full of warmth and joy was slowly unfolding in front of them.
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