Quality Medical Services at Doorway——Beijing's community-based medical institutions

For years suffering from hypertension, Mrs. Zhang, now in her 60s, is a frequent visitor to Beijing Dewai Community Hospital in her neighborhood.＂I feel too painstaking to go to a ＇big hospital,＇＂ she says. ＂Buses are always overcrowded and slow, not suitable for people like me. Besides, community-based medical institutions charge less for treatment of the same diseases.＂

Community-based elderly care services in China: an analysis based on the 2018 wave of the CLHLS Survey

Community-based elderly care services play an important role in dealing with popu-lation aging.Based data from the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey,we found that overall there was high demand for community-based elderly care services,but insufficient supply,resulting in unmet needs.The greatest demand was for medical care and nursing services and these were gener-ally more accessible compared to other services.The imbalance between available supply and elderly demand was greatest for personal care and psychological con-sulting services.Additionally,there were obvious imbalances of supply and demand for particular groups of the elderly population.In terms of demand,the young-old living in eastern and western China or urban areas had stronger demand for com-munity-based elderly care services.Elderly people with serious disabilities or low income,or living in rural areas and towns had more demand for home visit medical services,while the elderly with the ability to care for themselves or high incomes needed more social and entertainment services.With respect to inadequate supply,the demands for community-based elderly care services of the low-income elderly living in rural areas and towns or in western China were more likely to be unmet.Our results indicated that appropriate services should be provided by government agencies and institutions to meet the needs of various groups.It is also important to increase accessibility to community-based elderly care services as well as to guaran-tee an equitable distribution of supply.

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Older Adult Service Usage Assessment

This study provides information on the development and factor scaling, validity, and reliability of a newly developed community service utilization measure (Older Adult Service Usage Assessment-OASUA). Analyzes indicate the OASUA can be used to assess current perceived community service use and satisfaction, as well as providing an indication for future service use and potential service needs with older persons. Additional data collection sites should be identified and a broader sample obtained so as to confirm the psychometric properties of the instrument in conjunction with further development of the OASUA.

Investigating the impacts of urban built environments on users of multiple services in elderly care facilities

t This paper aims to characterize the varied urban settings community-based elderly care facilities are located,and examine whether characteristics of urban built environments influence the number of older people attending care facilities for multiple services.The dataset incorporates 108 cases of community-based elderly care facilities and usage records from over 17000 users collected in the Chinese city of Nanjing.A network-based approach was employed to comprehensively describe urban built environments surrounding care facilities with a series of metrics on street morphology and land-uses.It was found that urban built environments significantly influenced the number of users attending care facilities.Facilities having more users tended to locate in places with more shops and stores,on major arterial streets of the city,or inside large housing estates in the outer city.Moreover,urban factors performed differently in affecting users of different services as services accepting spontaneous users were more likely to be influenced by street morphology.This study revealed specific urban factors facilitating older people’s usage of care resources.It also generated practical implications regarding the strategies for the planning of spatial locations and service provision to improve the utilization of community-based elderly care.

Roles of mutual help of local community networks in community health activities: Improvement for the quality of life of older people in Thailand

Objectives: This study aimed to describe work and activities of community networks focusing on the improvement of the quality of life (QOL) of older people in Thailand.The understanding of the work can help enhancing the community development and strengthening of local communities and their networks.Methods: Qualitative methods including in-depth interview,observation,and focus group discussion were employed to the study.64 participants participated to the study and were recruited from 4 key actors within the community.Content analysis was used to analyze the obtained data.This study was conducted in 6 local administrative organizations (LAOs) which selected from the outstanding areas of the project.Each LAO represents one sub-district of the regions of Thailand namely;(1) the upper north,(2) the lower north,(3)the upper eastern,(4) the lower eastern,(5) the central and (6) the south.Results: The findings of this study were categorized into three main themes: (1) Social capital including people in the community,social groups,and organizations,(2) Mutual help/collaboration activities composed of six sets of activities related to social capitals working on the improvement of QOL of older people,and (3) Impacts of the mutual help/collaboration activities on older people and local communities who help to improve of QOL of older people.Conclusion: The findings are important features for the community development.These themes should be recommended for community nurses,health related groups and organizations for the improvement of QOL of older people in the community.