四种老龄化理念及其政策蕴意

Four Ideas of Aging Strategies and Their Policy Implications

在老龄化问题研究中,健康老龄化、积极老龄化、成功老龄化和生产性老龄化,这四种理念具有不同的内涵。在结合地方养老服务创新案例分析四种老龄化理念的相互关系及其政策蕴意的基础上,运用"生活质量—社会质量"视角,评估健康老龄化和成功老龄化在提升老年群体生活质量方面的效用,探讨生产性老龄化和积极老龄化对提升社会质量的意义,从而深化人们对各种养老理念的理解,将老龄化的问题延展至老年照顾之外的参与和增能方面,丰富养老政策的内容和内涵,为发展老年友好型社会提供政策路径。

Studies on how to address aging problems should not only focus on care and nursing for the elderly,but also on a wider range of other issues,such as the elderly empowerment and social participation.Hence,in studying aging strategies,we should look at all these aspects holistically.Discussions on aging strategies involve″healthy aging″and″successful aging″concepts.Of course,other concepts or theories will also be covered in efforts to explore more development approaches.This paper systematically studies four aging concepts,and carefully compares their contents,features and policy implications.In analyzing policies,″healthy aging″and″successful aging″concepts tell us that efforts should be devoted to the improvement of the material base of the society and enhance the social welfare system as we promote the elderly care services.″Healthy aging″focuses on the health of the elderly,whereas the″successful aging″emphasizes the increase of their sense of happiness and satisfaction.This paper argues that discussions on aging issues should go beyond the elderly nursing,home-care,and community-care.The contribution potentialities of the productive activities and services that involve the elderly should also be taken into consideration.The concept of″productive aging″stresses the″output″of the elderly,while″positive aging″focuses on the social participation of the elderly.These two concepts all encourage the elderly to integrate themselves into the mainstream society,participate in social activities and reform the society in an active and positive way,and thus live a better life.This paper looks at four elderly-care cases,which demonstrate the policy connotation of these four concepts.It also encourages all walks of the society to participate in this social endeavor and jointly drive the development of social elderly-care undertakings.After analyzing these concepts and effects of relative policies,we analyze the features of these elderly-care concepts from the prospective of″life quality and social quality.″Life quality theory gives prominence to measurements of major indicators and levels of happiness;social quality theory looks at social relations,social systems and other social criteria.Emphasizing″life quality″and″social quality″is conducive to the better understanding of the meaning and focuses of the four aging concepts mentioned above.This approach reveals the living and social conditions from the prospective of individual and society.Based on these discussions,this paper analyzes the policies that aim at building a″senior-friendly″society.Promoting healthy aging and successful aging on the basis of quality life enables the elderly to continuously improve themselves and pursue their life visions.Encouraging productive aging and positive aging on the basis of quality society means to include the elderly in social activities.The four aging concepts,therefore,can provide theoretical basis and analysis frameworks for studies and policies aiming at building a″senior-friendly″society.Analyzing these concepts help us better understand aging problems,find coping measures,and foster a sound and inclusive social environment for the elderly where they can be fully respected.