Low salary, heavy work, often facing negative emotions, who will guard the elderly care workers

Yesterday, in the "** Work Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") made by Premier Li Qiang, "pension" is one of the hot words, and it is also the focus of people's livelihood. The report pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the training of talents in the fields of elderly care and strengthen vocational skills training. In this regard, Zhou Yanfang, a representative of the National People's Congress and general manager of Pacific Medical and Health Management, also submitted a proposal during the two sessions this year, suggesting that the incentive guarantee for pension service personnel should be strengthened.

It is of practical significance to strengthen the incentive and guarantee of pension service personnel

In Zhou Yanfang's view, in order to meet the diversified, multi-level and high-quality pension service needs of the elderly, it is necessary to build a team of pension service personnel with moderate scale, reasonable structure and both moral and technical skills, and establish and improve the training, use, evaluation and incentive mechanism of pension service personnel, break down the institutional and institutional obstacles that restrict the development of talents, create conditions for the pension service personnel to start a business and realize the value of life, maximize the internal motivation of talents, and form a policy environment and social atmosphere conducive to the development of pension service personnel.

Zhou Yanfang, deputy to the National People's Congress.

By the end of 2023, China's population aged 60 and above has exceeded 2900 million people. According to a report released by the China Research Center on Aging, as of the end of 2022, there were about 44 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people in China. They require medical care and long-term care services to varying degrees. According to statistics, China's demand for elderly care workers has reached 6 million, but there are only 500,000 relevant employees.

Zhou Yanfang said that at present, China's pension service industry is in a period of accelerated transformation and upgrading, and the pension industry has developed to a certain extent, but the overall lagging situation has not changedFactors such as low social status, heavy work burden, low income and treatment, and certain care risks have led to long-term work pressure and excessive physical and mental burden, which affects their service quality, service efficiency and enthusiasm.

The current situation of the profession of pension service personnel needs to be improved urgently

Zhou Yanfang pointed out that at present, the salary of China's elderly care industry is generally low, the salary management is relatively simple, and the quality assessment of elderly care is more difficult. According to a special survey conducted by the Shanghai Pension Service Industry Association, the average salary income of elderly care workers in 2020 was about 4,985 yuan, while the average salary income of skilled talents in Shanghai in 2019 was 10,658 yuan.

In addition, due to the low income level, the level of social security for elderly care workers is not high. Compared with other service-oriented jobs, elderly care workers face greater psychological pressure. “First of all, a lot of the immediate pressure comes from interpersonal communication. Secondly, in addition to the unpleasant scenes such as suctioning, catheterization, and cleaning up vomit for the elderly, it is also necessary to often face the negative emotional distress of the elderly, such as sickness, pain, struggle, and death, which will cause them to be physically and mentally exhausted for a long time. Third, the social recognition of the profession is low, the social positive feedback and sense of value are insufficient, and the sense of professional honor is not strong. Zhou Yanfang said.

She said that in the case of the objective existence of the income gap between urban and rural areas in China, many service workers leave their hometowns, carrying the burden of their families, are in a vulnerable position in the job market, and overtime and shift work are commonplace.

At the same time, the participation of social forces is not high, and the operation pressure of pension enterprises is high. China's existing "time bank" mechanism is relatively backward in development, can only be implemented in a small range between enterprises and individuals, due to the sustainability of business operation is doubtful, the volunteers who provide services for the elderly are mostly for public welfare, and the incentive effect is limited.

Suggestion. To this end, Zhou Yanfang believes that in the situation of deepening population aging, it is necessary to give more attention and support to the society to jointly strengthen the incentive and guarantee of pension service personnel, and exchange the "smiling faces of employees" for "the smiling faces of the elderly". She suggested that the establishment and improvement of the social welfare security system for the elderly service personnel, according to the service professionalism, service hours, service effectiveness and other contributions, to provide the elderly with special tax preferential conditions, points settlement policy, housing security policy, medical security policy, vocational education subsidies, higher education tuition waivers and other affordable policies. At the same time, a special reward plan should be set up for pension service personnel with special contributions, and individuals and teams who have made outstanding achievements in the field of pension services should be rewarded and given financial support. For compliant pension enterprises that pay social insurance for pension service personnel, the enterprise income tax can be reduced or exempted in proportion to the amount of social insurance paid by the employees.

At the same time, the mental health level of the elderly service personnel is regularly assessed, the psychological state of the elderly service personnel is understood in a timely manner, and according to the evaluation results, special psychological counseling services and training are carried out for the elderly service personnel. In order to encourage all kinds of talents in the whole society to actively participate in the service of the elderly, Zhou Yanfang suggested that a public platform be set up to monetize the time that volunteers provide services for the elderly in pension institutions, and volunteers can widely use such "virtual currency" in daily consumption, turning the long-term commitment of a single enterprise into a single endorsement that can be fulfilled at any time, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of all kinds of talents to provide services for the elderly.

Reporter |Chen Yingting

Edit |Chen Shunan.