Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country's social work has made rapid progress. This magazine and new media specially invited ten experts, ten social workers, and ten administrative/industry managers who have witnessed the development of the industry for ten years. Please tell me about the extraordinary decade of social work in their eyes. Welcome to follow.
Today we will take a look at Pan Xing, one of the ten social workers, talking about his social work experience.
On a winter night in 2008, a childish social worker strolled alone on the streets of Hong Kong, dancing while talking to the other side on his mobile phone. He is the protagonist of this dream journey, that is, me. After graduating from the China Youth Political Science School in 2007 and struggling in the community for a year, I obtained the opportunity to study for a master's degree in social service management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In the process of learning and practice in Hong Kong, I have seen the role of social workers in the elderly care service system - not marginalized, but dominant. I was very excited, as if I had found a path I wanted to go, and couldn't wait to share it with others, so the scene at the beginning of the article appeared. She and I, who were far away in Beijing, depicted the beautiful picture of the elderly care ecology led by social workers. However, this picture is really like a dream, beautiful but out of reach.
▲The author led a team to visit and learn the Hong Kong elderly care service system
From being a social worker to talking about social worker
In 2009, after graduation, I returned to Beijing. With the support of my alma mater and the Xicheng District Civil Affairs Bureau, I founded the Xicheng District Muyou Social Work Office (hereinafter referred to as Muyou). Muyou dispatches professional social workers to nursing homes, communities and hospitals by taking on government service purchase projects, and integrates the network through social workers to explore the establishment of a trinity-integrated elderly care service network with institutions, communities and hospitals.
In just one year, Muyou developed into the leading social work organization in Xicheng District, and also led to the establishment and development of a number of social work organizations in Xicheng District. In this process, I gradually realized that social workers who understand practice are the basis of high-quality professional services. I began to think about whether to change my identity and become a social worker practical teacher, and to cultivate more social workers who are willing to "pursuing their dreams".
In 2010, I became a social worker teacher in the Department of Sociology of Anhui University, and I was fortunate to participate in the training of the first batch of master's degree in social work in the country. In 2012, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held, proposing to "strengthen and innovate social management." Since then, the development of Anhui's social work has also entered the fast lane. Grassroots governments attach great importance to the social worker examination. I, who have both practical experience and university teachers, became the "golden lecturer" in the examination training, traveling all over the province, training thousands of students every year.
With the rapid development of social work institutions and the need for external supervision forces, I have become a supervisor or director of many social work institutions such as Hefei Minsheng Social Work Service Society, witnessing their rapid growth. However, during the supervision process, I found that institutions still face challenges such as unclear social worker roles, low salaries, and high attrition rates, which reminded me of the dream of "oldering ecology".
Borrowing the east wind of social work development, letting dreams sprout and blossom
In January 2015, Taicang Deyishan Social Work Development Center, which carries my dream of "oldering ecology", was officially established. She was not only a family member, but also a dream partner.
She is also a social worker graduate of the China Youth Political Academy. She has done a home-based elderly care research project of the National Aging Committee, went to Wenchuan to carry out post-disaster elderly psychological assistance projects, and worked as a professional manager of a home-based elderly care service company. Taicang is her hometown. When we returned to visit our relatives, we accidentally saw a special social work interview broadcast on TV. Only then did we find out that Taicang is the birthplace of "government-society interaction" or the first batch of national social work service demonstration areas. It is simply an excellent place for the dream to take root.
Just like that, my dream became our dream, and her hometown became our hometown. She is responsible for operations and management, and I am responsible for strategic R&D training. Through a detailed analysis of the policies related to elderly care in Suzhou and Taicang, we have determined the strategy of striving to undertake home-based elderly care services after using the rural day care center as the entry point and building a professional brand.
▲Deyishan Party Branch Activities: Social Workers Party members join hands with elderly Party members to make rice dumplings
In August 2015, we won the bid for the first rural day care center in Taicang City to be publicly tendered, and this is also our first service project. We start from local folk culture and take the personalized service needs of the elderly as the starting point, and customize and develop diversified special services, enriching the service content of the day care center. It is said that Taicang is the origin of mahjong, and the elderly like to play mahjong very much. We have made good use of mahjong group, social, educational attributes and other attributes to develop mahjong groups with extremely low participation thresholds, and later introduced puzzle board games such as "Israel Mahjong". Through communication with the elderly, we found that many elderly children live in the city and come back rarely once a month. We helped the elderly apply for QQ, and used the computer donated by the company to teach the elderly how to watch videos, browse news, chat with QQ videos, etc. We also equipped a handwritten board to better solve the problem of the elderly not being able to type and to make it easier for the elderly to participate.
Later, we opened an aerial Babylonian garden based on the complexity of agricultural non-agers for land, combined with the theory of horticulture treatment. However, we did not plant flowers or grass, but instead plant garlic, onion, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers, plant everything that can be eaten so that the elderly can not only plant but also bring things home. It is through such activities with rustic atmosphere and professional elements that we have grown from one day care center to more than 40. In 2016 and 2021, Wu Yushao, then deputy director of the National Aging Office, visited Taicang twice to inspect the day care center we operated, and expressed his appreciation for the service model of the day care center led by social workers, which strengthened our confidence in continuing to pursue our dreams.
In July 2016, the bid for home-based elderly care service project in Taicang City was launched. Those who compete on the same stage are property service companies and large elderly care service companies, and we are the only social work organization. In the end, with the systematic thinking and precise services of social workers, we successfully won the bid for the Taicang East District Section. We have used case management methods to establish a care housekeeper service model. The "Elder Care Housekeeper" formulates a personalized service plan for the elderly based on the assessment results of the ability and needs of the elderly. According to the elderly service plan, the "Elder Care Manager" arranges and coordinates the interprofessional team members such as elderly caregivers, medical caregivers, nurses, psychological counselors in the institution to provide the elderly with professional services that meet the diverse service needs of body, mind, society and spirit, and dynamically adjust service plans and resource matching through regular follow-up visits.
In 2018, the book "County Elderly Care - Perspective of Taicang Elderly Care Services" was published, which in-depth introduction to the experience of building the elderly care service system in Taicang City, and called the "Yi" (community Elderly Care Brand) of "Deyi and Good" (Community Elderly Care Brand) of Yiyueyuan (Taicang Institutional Elderly Care Brand) and Yijule (Taicang Internet Elderly Care Platform) the three "Yi" in the closed loop of elderly care and care.
Focus on talent cultivation and let your dreams set sail
With the rapid development of institutions, the shortage of social workers has become increasingly prominent. It is difficult to recruit graduates from 985 and 211 universities to engage in elderly care and social work services in the county town. Many managers are basically from their hometowns and towns, including mothers, individual business owners, and transformed from all walks of life. How to build such a team into a "professional and loving" service team has become a new challenge we face.
I took the lead in selecting elite soldiers and formed a training department, and learned experience extraction, curriculum development, training technology, and coaching technology together. I established an internal training school in the organization - Yishan Academy, and created a curriculum system based on the organization's own service experience.The Deyishan team has grown from the first three people to now have more than 800 full-time employees, including more than 500 front-line nursing care workers and more than 100 social workers. Among them, there are 4 senior social workers, 2 100 social workers in the country, 5 leading social work talents in Jiangsu Province, Taicang City’s leading (key) social work talents, and more than 30 winners of various professional awards at the municipal level or above.
is not only within the service organization, but we have also undertaken many training classes such as Taicang City social worker examination training, social worker training classes, social work practice skills training and other training classes for many years, training thousands of people every year. In 2020, Taicang Social Organization Innovation and Development College was established. I was appointed as the chief lecturer and led the teacher training and course construction in the entire social organization field. Among them, the "Spark Instructor" training class trained 39 local social work elite lecturers and developed 39 social work practice courses.
▲The author has opened a social organization lecturer training class for the backbone of social organizations in Taicang City
In 2018, the pilot project of long-term nursing insurance in Taicang City was officially launched. We took the opportunity to establish Taicang Yishan Nursing Station, becoming the first batch of designated service institutions, and started the exploration of medical and nursing integration. In 2019, Yiqi Training Development Co., Ltd., which is based on the training department, was established and began to export training to the outside world. In 2020, Suzhou Deyishan Jincang Elderly Care Industry Co., Ltd. was established and received millions of angel investment from well-known venture capital funds, opening up the road to transformation of social enterprises. Under the leadership of social workers, Deyishan has built a cross-professional service team including nurses, rehabilitators, nutritionists, elderly care nurses, medical nurses, etc., and has built a self-operated service network including 1 street welfare home, 2 long-term care insurance designated units, more than 20 social work stations (rooms), more than 40 day care centers, more than 50 home-based elderly care service stations, and one training college. At this point, an elderly care service ecosystem has been formed with industrial investment, training and research and development, integration of medical care and nursing, and diversified social work services, and has gradually expanded from Taicang to Kunshan, Hefei and other places.
The bold words of the past have become a reality bit by bit in the past decade with the strong support of the Party and the government for the elderly care and social work. Construction of an elderly care service system is an important measure and development direction for actively responding to population aging in the new era. The elderly care service ecosystem led by social workers is the best carrier for social workers to play an important role in actively responding to population aging in the new era. This is a two-way trip. I believe that in the next decade, more social workers will build dreams together.
(The author is a director of the Chinese Society of Social Work, lecturer of the Department of Social Work of Anhui University, senior social worker, chairman of Taicang Deyishan Social Work Development Center, and president of Taicang Elderly Care Service Industry Association)
Source: China Social Work, please indicate the source and author of reprinting
Editor: Xia Xuejuan
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