A Sustainable, Interactive Elderly Healthcare System for Nursing Homes: An Interdisciplinary Design

Research on innovative design of community mutual aid elderly care service platform based on Kano model

The mutual aid elderly care model is important to solve the world population's current aging problem. However, although mutual aid elderly care has been developing in China for more than 20 years, there is still a lack of a systematic way to participate in mutual aid elderly care services, which has led to a slow development of mutual aid elderly care. Therefore, in order to promote the development of mutual aid elderly care and the transition of social elderly care towards sustainability, this study analyzes the actual elderly care service needs and proposes new design strategies for mutual aid elderly care service platforms. In this study, first, the actual elderly care needs were obtained through interview methods and offline questionnaire surveys. The results showed that the elderly have a high demand for health, daily life, entertainment, and spiritual needs, which can be used to establish a comprehensive Kano model. Based on the priority of the needs hierarchy, mutual aid elderly care resources can be allocated rationally. For example, when applying the research results to the design of mutual aid elderly care service platforms, the "Must-be quality" is first satisfied, followed by the "One-dimensional quality" and the "Attractive quality" according to the actual situation. Furthermore, the mutual aid elderly care service platform is divided into a basic version and a professional version to promote the actual needs of different groups of elderly people. In conclusion, the study aims to promote the development of mutual aid elderly care and the transition of social elderly care towards sustainability. The research value of this study lies in its potential to alleviate the slow development of the current mutual aid elderly care model in China and provide a reference for solving the problem of global aging population.

How Can the Modern Chinese Family Retirement Function Be Separated and Sustainable?

In the context of hybrid changes taking place in population and family structures, it is widely perceived that the function of the family as a place where older people retire has weakened. Family support has lost its vitality and has been replaced by public support. However, since the elderly are inseparably connected to their family, it is relevant to rethink and analyze how modern families’ pension functions can be sustainable. Based on structural functionalism and the family modernization theory, we construct an analytical framework to understand how the family ageing function operates separately. Fieldwork was carried out in Nantong, a place where the population has drastically aged. We documented different types of households to explain the changes and differences in modern family ageing. The results show that it is not simply a general weakening, but that a differentiated development pattern has separated the family functions and that there is a functional alternative path to compensate for sustainable development. That is, the economic function is strengthened and compensates for the weakened service function. Based on our research, we argue that families and the government should share the responsibility of meeting the diversified and specialized needs of older people in families where economic functions have strengthened and service functions have weakened. In families where both sets of functions have weakened, the government needs to overtake those functions. Today, family retirement function has been revitalized and redeveloped.