Shanghai community incorporates smart tech into elderly care
CGTN

A community in Shanghai has won overwhelming praise on social media for introducing smart technologies to improve elderly-care services. Smart water meters, which will alarm neighborhood committee workers to check on them if the water meter stays stagnant for over 12 hours, have been installed for elderly living alone in the community.

The move has been widely lauded by netizens, who suggest it should be adopted by more communities across the country.

A worker is monitoring the smart water meters in the community from the screen. /China News

A worker is monitoring the smart water meters in the community from the screen. /China News

According to community staff, smart door sensors, smoke detectors and infrared sensors have also been installed to alert workers of emergencies. 

An 86-year-old, surnamed Zhang, who lives alone in the community, said she was happy about the new service. /China News

An 86-year-old, surnamed Zhang, who lives alone in the community, said she was happy about the new service. /China News

An 86-year-old, surnamed Zhang, who lives alone in the community, said she is really satisfied with the new intelligent services. She added that the smoke detector is really helpful and alerted her several times that she left something on the stove. 

There are more than 20,000 elderly people aged over 60 years old living in the community, accounting for about 39 percent of the total population living there, according to Dai Tao, an official from the local sub-district office.

He added that the community has been actively incorporating more intelligent technologies into elderly-care services, providing accurate and effective services to the elderly.

Caring for the elderly is a hot-button policy issue in Shanghai, where residents 60 years and above comprise about a third of the whole population. The city has drafted new regulations on senior-care services, and input from grassroots is helping frame the law.

According to statistics released by the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of citizens aged 60 or over stood at 254 million at the end of last year, accounting for 18.1 percent of the population. And the number is expected to rise to 300 million by 2025. 

(Top image: VCG)