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Prioritize long-term care for the elderly

Feng Xiaotian, a professor at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University / CHINA DAILY

The "nursing leave" is more like "treating the symptoms, not the disease", which will help the elderly only when they fall ill and need medical care, without addressing the aging society challenges in their totality. How will people take care of their parents who are disabled or suffering from chronic diseases and thus require constant attention?

The families that rely on home-based care for senior citizens usually don't have the resources to guard against risks. Perhaps a more developed social structure, comprising local authorities, institutions and families, should be built to take better care of the elderly.

Injecting more funds to build nursing homes and special hospitals for the aged and increasing the capacities of the existing ones might be a better way of addressing the problem.

To effectively meet the aging society challenges, both long-term and short-term strategies are needed.

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