Guest
Lin Yuwei
Interview Background
The year 2026 marks the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. At this new stage of development, how will Jing'an anchor itself in the goal of "International Jing'an: An Outstanding Urban Area" and take the lead in contributing to Shanghai's "Five Centers" initiative?
Host:
The year 2026 marks the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. At this new stage of development, how will Jing'an anchor itself in the goal of "International Jing'an: An Outstanding Urban Area" and take the lead in contributing to Shanghai's "Five Centers" initiative? In this episode, we are joined by two distinguished guests: Lin Yuwei, Deputy Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jing'an District, and Yin Zhigang, former Director of the Shanghai Research Center on Aging (Shanghai Civil Affairs Research Center), for an in-depth discussion covering the overall positioning of elderly care development in Jing'an District during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the upgrading of the hub functions of community elderly care service platforms, the deepening of the integrated medical and elderly care model under the "Five Beds Collaboration" initiative, the quality improvement of meal assistance services at "Jing'an Restaurant", the development of the elderly care workforce, and the provision of multi-tiered, diversified elderly care services.
Lin Yuwei:
Hello, everyone.
Yin Zhigang:
Hello, everyone.
Host:
By the end of 2025, the total registered population of Jing'an District stood at 901,100. Specifically, 380,000 residents were aged 60 and above, accounting for 42.18% of the district's total registered population; 311,600 were aged 65 and above, making up 34.58% of the total; 56,000 were aged 80 and above, representing 14.74% of the district's registered elderly population; and 534 were centenarians. These figures highlight the distinct regional features of high population density, a highly aged demographic structure, and strong demand for elderly care services. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jing'an District, centering on the district's overall development priorities and thoroughly applying the people-centered city concept, has defined the development orientation of elderly care services. Could you elaborate on this for us?
Lin Yuwei:
Overall Positioning: Through five years of concerted efforts, by 2030, an elderly care service system commensurate with the goal of "International Jing'an: An Outstanding Urban Area" will be fully established, acting as a stabilizer and a new growth driver for Jing'an's high-quality development.
Core Development Goals: The supply of basic elderly care services will be continuously optimized and upgraded; inclusive elderly care services and products will be substantially expanded; the quality of market-based elderly care services will be benchmarked against international standards; and the vision of "elderly people enjoying quality care in their golden years" will be widely realized.
Overall Planning and Layout: Centering on the "Senior Care Program", we will focus on one key priority—strengthening the role of communities as hubs for elderly care services by concentrating on resource coordination and service linkage; drive development on two fronts—leveraging communities as the foundation to improve basic home-based elderly care services and amplify the professional strengths of institutional elderly care; and accelerate three major integrations—the integrated development of home-based, community-based and institutional elderly care, the integrated development of medical and elderly care, and the integrated development of elderly care programs and the elderly care industry. We will continue to reshape the elderly care service system and transform service models, so as to develop an exceptional "Jing'an Model" for elderly care services in a modern international district.
Host:
To date, Jing'an has built 26 community integrated senior service centers, 17 senior care homes, and 29 community-based day-care centers for the elderly, with both the number and layout of such facilities taking the lead in Shanghai. What further improvements will be made to community-based elderly care services during the 15th Five-Year Plan period?
Lin Yuwei:
With regard to facility spaces, we will improve and refine community integrated senior service centers, equip them with eight categories of universal services, explore "X" personalized services, and achieve the goal of "one center, one signature feature". We will promote resource sharing with community health service centers, schools, cultural venues, and other facilities, opening up these spaces for senior education classes, cultural salons, and other activities. We will support community-based elderly care service providers in offering services including bathing assistance, cleaning assistance, mobility support, meal delivery, medical visit accompaniment, and assistive device rental, to diversify the forms of community-based elderly care services. We will integrate and improve day-care centers and neighborhood elderly care service stations, to advance balanced, accessible embedded community elderly care services. We will also encourage elderly care institutions to extend their services to communities, develop home-based elderly care beds, and open their canteens, rehabilitation facilities, and activity venues to the public.
Lin Yuwei:
For digital empowerment, we will leverage the "Happy Elderly Life Homes" mini-program to integrate full-cycle resources covering seven dimensions: medical care, catering, assistance, mobility, elderly care, recreation, and learning. The program is embedded with the district's latest handy elderly care map, enabling one-click inquiries about nursing homes, senior canteens, welfare subsidies, and health data. We will build a one-stop elderly care service resource platform to realize "integrated access on one terminal, district-wide response, and smart empowerment". We will eventually establish a three-tier service system covering communities, residents' committees, and households, with integrated senior service centers as hubs, functional elderly care facilities as support, and "Happy Elderly Life Homes" as extensions, to provide integrated, round-the-clock elderly care services across institutional, community, and home settings.
Yin Zhigang:
We will strengthen hub functions and consolidate the main front for doorstep elderly care services. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, community-based elderly care services will undergo an in-depth transformation from facility development to coordinated support, and the hub function of relevant platforms will be comprehensively enhanced.
Host:
In 2022, Jing'an District took the national lead in launching the integrated medical and elderly care service model of "Five Beds Collaboration", which met the full-chain essential needs of seniors in the central urban area, covering medical treatment, rehabilitation, care, and end-of-life services. The model received extensive attention and fully demonstrated the leading role of the Jing'an practice. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, will this innovative model once again be comprehensively upgraded?
Lin Yuwei:
Exactly. Wider bed coverage: Based on existing categories, including home-based elderly care beds, institutional elderly care beds, home medical beds, hospital medical beds and hospice care beds, day-care beds and cognitive impairment care beds will be added to build a new framework of "Multiple Beds Collaboration".
More diversified medical cooperation: The "1+1+1" contracting model will be upgraded to the "1+1+N" model. Elderly care institutions may, based on the needs of the elderly, enter into contracts with multiple general and specialized medical institutions, including the Jing'an District Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital, the Mental Health Center of Jing'an District, and the Shanghai Fourth Rehabilitation Hospital, to accurately address high-frequency, essential needs such as TCM rehabilitation, cognitive impairment care, and sleep disorder services.
More efficient referral processes: We will improve the online referral platform, optimize the functions of referral forms, and strengthen the sharing of health and elderly care data; we will standardize offline referral mechanisms by defining clear procedures, assigning responsibilities to designated personnel, and establishing a closed-loop feedback mechanism, to allocate bed resources in a more timely and targeted manner, and bring a stronger sense of gain to the elderly and their families.
Host:
Thanks for your introduction. With "Jing'an Restaurant" as our core brand, Jing'an District has built 35 community senior canteens and 81 meal assistance points, with a daily meal supply capacity of 17,100 servings, effectively ensuring elderly residents' access to meals within the district. What upgrade measures will be taken for meal assistance services during the 15th Five-Year Plan period?
Lin Yuwei:
Building a denser meal assistance network: We will improve a diversified supply model involving the government, enterprises, and institutions, attract more high-quality catering enterprises and elderly care institutions to join the "Jing'an Restaurant" program or set up additional "senior dining tables", and keep expanding the number of service sites and coverage.
Diversifying food supply: We will add counters for local specialty snacks, bring in bakery brands to develop low-sugar pastries suitable for the elderly, provide semi-finished products and pre-prepared meals, launch online ordering and offline meal delivery services, and collect public feedback on dishes.
Innovating scenario-based functions: We will turn senior canteens from mere dining venues into study spaces, reception lounges, and teahouses, develop integrated scenarios combining elderly care services, commercial consumption, and cultural tourism experiences, extend the service value chain, and build age-friendly social spaces.
Yin Zhigang:
We will improve the quality of meal assistance for the elderly to make "Jing'an Restaurant" more caring and convenient for the public. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, meal services will be comprehensively upgraded from ensuring seniors have enough to eat to delivering meals that are tasty, nutritious, and convenient.
Host:
Currently, there are approximately 3,000 elderly care workers across the district. Over 95% of them hold vocational skill level certificates, and more than 30% hold certificates at the intermediate level or above, laying a solid foundation for building a professional workforce. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, how will Jing'an address the challenges in recruiting, retaining and upskilling talent?
Lin Yuwei:
Improving the training system. We will develop a training model that integrates academic education, vocational education, continuing education, and practical training at dedicated bases. We will deepen continuing education, carrying out graded training, cognitive impairment care training and specialized home-based care training by leveraging the Public Practical Training Base for Elderly Care Workers of Jing'an District. We will also strengthen academic education, support the Smart Health and Elderly Care Service and Management program of Shanghai Xingjian College, and adopt the "1+2+N" training model (core job competence + featured orientation + diversified job competence) to cultivate interdisciplinary young skilled talents in elderly care in fields including basic care, smart health and elderly care technology application, and elderly care service management, and actively advance international exchanges and the in-depth integration of industry, academia, and research.
Lin Yuwei:
Strengthening incentives and support: We will implement dual subsidies at both municipal and district levels, providing training subsidies equivalent to 50% of the actual expenditures of institutions; grant monthly post subsidies accounting for 20% to 60% of the city's minimum wage according to certificate grades; and also enhance all-round support, including housing support and summer care programs for the children of non-local elderly care workers in Shanghai. Through employment system management, better pay, skills competitions, on-the-spot certification, and career pathways, we will strengthen workforce stability and foster their sense of belonging, building a professional, stable, and highly qualified elderly care workforce.
Yin Zhigang:
To expand its talent pool, Jing'an will consolidate the foundation for talent development with a full-chain mechanism, so as to remove bottlenecks constraining the development of elderly care services.
Host:
Faced with the increasingly diverse needs of the elderly, how will Jing'an carve out a distinctive "Jing'an path" for differentiated elderly care?
Lin Yuwei:
First, we will build a solid base of inclusive care. We will strengthen the inclusive foundation of elderly care facility provision, improve the 15-minute elderly care service circle, refine the list of basic elderly care services, and precisely identify those in need of support. We will also extend care to elderly people in special difficulty and weave a denser network of care.
Second, we will deliver tiered, targeted services. The government will uphold the bottom line of basic guarantees for recipients of subsistence allowances and those living in extreme poverty. For middle-income groups, we will adopt a "government + market" model to lower the price of inclusive services and fill service gaps. At the same time, we will guide market players to develop more diverse and personalized services that meet the real needs of the elderly.
Lin Yuwei:
Third, we will empower services with digital and smart technologies. We will build a district-level overarching smart elderly care service platform to break down data silos between elderly care institutions, communities, and home-based care settings, precisely map out the needs of the elderly, achieve precise service matching and efficient resource allocation, and drive the upgrading of elderly care services from "meeting basic care needs" to "delivering quality elderly care experiences".
Finally, we will unlock the vitality of the silver economy. Efforts will be made to foster emerging business forms including medical visit accompaniment, bathing assistance, and accessible welfare vehicle mobility services; expand "Elderly Care Plus" scenarios, deepen government-bank-enterprise cooperation, and set up elderly care advisory posts and age-friendly model rooms at bank outlets; build silver-age reception lounges and happy senior consumer living circles, guide merchants to provide age-friendly services, and unlock the potential of senior consumption.
Yin Zhigang:
Jing'an District attaches equal importance to ensuring universal basic care for people in need and improving service quality, and has built a multi-tiered, diversified, and full-cycle elderly care service supply system across four dimensions, forging a differentiated "Jing'an path" for elderly care.
Lin Yuwei:
At present, elderly care services are undergoing an in-depth transformation from "addressing weak links and expanding supply" to "improving quality and optimizing structure". Guided by the concept that "cities are built by and for the people", Jing'an District will continue to improve the elderly care service system that coordinates home-based, community-based, and institutional care, and integrates medical and elderly care. This will enable every senior resident in Jing'an to enjoy a happy, dignified, and high-quality later life within their familiar urban area, and contribute a replicable and scalable "Jing'an Model" for the central urban areas of megacities to respond to deepening population aging.
Host:
Thank you both for your insightful sharing. That brings our interview to a close! Thank you.
Lin Yuwei:
Thank you, everyone! Goodbye!
Yin Zhigang:
Thank you, everyone! Goodbye!