Age Bank, a Cheap Caregiving Lesson from China
Banking Time from Young to Old Alleviates Loneliness, Care Pressures
Sep 30, 2009
Caregiving is often a burden for those who do it. And, with American society rapidly aging, there will be increasing demand on fewer and fewer young people to care for a growing elderly population. One long-term solution might be to deploy robots, or live in co-housing. But there isn't enough of the latter to go around yet, and the former, well, is still in the realm of science fiction.
Another idea, readily adapted from China, is the "Age Bank." It's easy to do--and, importantly, given the tight economy, it's cheap, too.
Lessons in Inexpensive Caregiving from China
With rapid modernization, a centuries-old Chinese heritage of taking care of disabled older relatives is fading away. Often the workers’ parents and grandparents accompany them to the city but on a day-to-day basis the elders can be left without adequate social contacts, and without someone to care for them when they are sick.
The erosion of what sociologists call the “informal support system” – that is, the friends and family who cook, clean, and care for ailing elderly relatives—is particularly dire given that China is projected to have the world’s largest population of over-60 boomers by 2020.
More than an academic challenge, these are pressing issues for millions of individual Chinese men and women caught in the maws of an abrupt economic transition from farm to factory.
A case in point is the city of Chongqing in the Yangtze province in western China. It ranks among China’s huge megalopolis, cities that dwarf New York and London. Chongqing’s population of 13 million is predicted to grow to 20 million within a dozen years, thanks to a Marshall Plan-sized government investment in the construction of bridges, tunnels, roads and other infrastructure. Much of the city’s population growth is due to a flood of rural workers to the city.
Gerontologists are sufficiently concerned about the health risks facing the older migrant population because of displacement that Daipang Hospital in Chongqing is conducting studies on stress, sedentary lifestyle and depression among the city’s elderly,
An Innovative Concept, Age Bank
Local Chongqing residents did some creative problem-solving to meet the needs of their elders. They devised the Age Bank (See video here).
A community organizer named Feng Kexiong set up a labor exchange program called the Age Bank where registrants can request services, which are provided by able-bodied retired workers.
Volunteers accrue credits, which are like money in the bank. When the younger retirees need assistance in the future they plan to cash in and get help for themselves. In an ironic nod to Mao, the hours given and owed are all recorded in a little red book.
This small, community-level labor exchange program enables older citizens both to give and get help with shopping, cooking meals, running errands, and cleaning. The Age Bank also facilitates what's sometimes seems simplest but most important thing in eldercare: companionship.
China's "Age Bank" Offers Model for Caregiving for American Elderly
Aspects of China's Age Bank idea could be adapted to American communities in need of stronger social ties and inexpensive ways to meet the demand for social services for seniors. It's not hard to imagine.
For instance, if Age Bank were to become the rage in retirement communities such as Phoenix, Arizona, or Boca Raton, Florida, then local civic organizations, the community hospital, pension plans, retirement communities, and golf or tennis clubs might sponsor the program.
Age Bank could be positioned by a marketing campaign as the hip new fad, and heralded in the media as another clever social innovation by the iconoclastic Boomers.
If, hypothetically, 5,000 men and women aged 55 to 65 years old contributed three hours a month, the net result would be 15,000 hours spent on services for the disabled older population. That's a huge influx of person-hours. Plus, all concerned win new opportunities to make new friends in a different stage of life.
Imagine Age Bank “hours logged” onto a community based internet network, and then being used like money in the bank, or as a swappable currency. Swapping time in a systematic way is a cheap way for communities to share resources and provide necessary services. Of course, there are always details, and in the US, issues of liability would have to be addressed.
Still, given a weak economy and many people in need, perhaps the Age Bank concept makes good market sense. One cheap, community-based way to provide caregiving and fight social isolation for a growing elderly population in the US would be to adopt the Chinese idea of an "Age Bank."
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