Every noon, at the senior canteen in Wanglin Village, Xindian Town, Mengcun Hui Autonomous County, Hebei Province, steaming hot dishes are freshly baked, and elderly people living nearby come to dine. Nowadays, more and more rural areas are integrating existing facilities and resources to create rural elderly activity centers that integrate meal assistance, leisure, entertainment, and health care, making elderly life more convenient.
At present, the demand for elderly care services has shifted from survival oriented to development oriented, from simple life care needs to multi-level, diversified, and personalized needs. Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments jointly issued the "Several Measures to Further Promote the Consumption of Elderly Care Services and Improve the Quality of Life of the Elderly" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Measures"), proposing 19 policy measures from five aspects, requiring further effective exploration of the consumption potential of elderly care services, promoting the coordinated development of the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry, and achieving high-quality development of elderly care services.
The elderly care needs in our country are divided into different scenarios such as home, community, and institutions. To continuously expand and optimize the supply of high-quality elderly care services, and promote precise matching between supply and demand. Actively developing home-based elderly care services, promoting the development of services such as meal assistance, bathing assistance, medical assistance, cleaning assistance, mobility assistance, emergency assistance, and visitation care. Carry out home aging adaptation renovation and encourage households to equip themselves with intelligent safety monitoring devices. Expand community elderly care services, optimize and enhance institutional elderly care services, accelerate the development of rural elderly care services, continuously expand and optimize the supply of elderly care services, and provide smooth channels for elderly people to conveniently obtain the professional services they need.
The elderly care service industry is a sunrise industry with enormous development potential. The China Aging Science Research Center predicts that by 2035, the scale of China's silver economy will reach 30 trillion yuan. To effectively stimulate the consumption vitality of elderly care services, we must fully leverage the role of the market. Encourage and guide enterprises and other social forces to actively participate in elderly care services, promote the integration and development of elderly care services with industries such as home economics, healthcare, culture, and education, and expand the formation of new service fields with multiple formats and forms. Strengthen the industry of elderly care service facilities, equipment, products, and supplies, and promote the coordinated development of elderly care and industry.
The "Several Measures" require the expansion of new scenarios and formats for elderly care service consumption, and propose to guide platform enterprises such as online e-commerce platforms and shopping applications to provide aging friendly services, enhancing the convenience of elderly people and other groups to enjoy intelligent products and services. Meituan data shows that since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of orders for "aging friendly renovation," "community day care," and "home-based elderly care" has ranked among the top three in elderly care services. Each region and department should further encourage platform enterprises to expand new consumption scenarios for elderly care services, establish market trading platforms for elderly care services and elderly products, and enhance the level of inclusiveness, convenience, and personalization of elderly care services. Support business entities to increase the supply of high-quality elderly products in the market, optimize the consumption environment of the elderly population, and provide more security for elderly consumption.
