Research On Home-based Care Services For Widowed Elderly Living Alone In Urban Communities

From the perspective of the social background,the rapidly accelerating aging has brought double challenges to the family and society for the elderly.For the elderly,"widowed" is an inevitable event they are experiencing or will face in the future.Affected by social transformation and the progress of urbanization,the phenomenon of elderly living alone is becoming more and more common.There is an upward trend in the number of widowed elderly living alone.From the perspective of the policy background,the government has repeatedly issued documents emphasizing home-based care services,which makes this type of care model gain room for development in urban communities,and has become a new choice for more and more elderly care services in my country.From the perspective of academic research,the research on home care in my country has gradually shifted from theory to practical exploration,and from focusing on top-level design to focusing on people,so it is more detailed.In this context,on the one hand,the widowed elderly living alone need to make psychological adjustments and adapt to their lives in the short term,and in the long run,how to spend their twilight years after losing their spouse and living alone becomes a problem what they have to face.The author tries to explore the problems related to home care services for the widowed elderly living alone,in order to provide solutions to alleviate the elderly care problems of this group.This article starts with the home care model in urban communities in my country,mainly using qualitative research methods,based on hierarchy of needs theory,ERG theory,and social support theory,using literature research methods and semi-structured interview methods.Based on the interviews with 12 widowed elderly living alone in P community in F City,Shandong Province,we learned about the life care,mental status,and social contacts of the client after the widow.Identify,summarize and analyze the needs and satisfaction of their home care services,explore the sources of social support for their home care services in the community,and find out the problems of the current home care services provided by the community through the comparison of supply and demand.Finally,it is problem-oriented,trying to build a formal and informal social support network for home care for the elderly,making it a new way to improve the quality of home care services in urban communities in my country.The author’s main research findings and conclusions are as follows.In terms of living care,the widowed elderly living alone show common needs.Most of them are able to take care of themselves,and their needs are mainly manifested in ancillary services such as cleaning and travel.Their medical and healthcare needs focus on medical escort and outpatient treatment.At the same time,they also have higher-level needs such as widowhood emotional counseling and self-realization.The current community service providers include government,non-governmental social organizations or enterprises,children and other relatives,neighbors,peers,volunteers,etc.The content includes material support and non-material support.Affected by the supply-side service quality and the changes in the needs of the widowed elderly living alone,there are certain problems in the role positioning and coordination of the service entities,and there are problems in the service content such as mismatch between supply and demand and insufficient service effectiveness.By building a scientific,rigorous and complete social support network for the elderly at home,it is possible to integrate formal and informal sources of support,improve the quality of community care services,and keep the elderly in a good and orderly life after their widowhood.