Against the backdrop of an aging population and fewer children per family, our country’s elderly care industry is facing a major challenge: to solve the issue of providing services for the elderly. Governments, businesses, and society are jointly seeking solutions, and smart elderly care is considered an effective way to supplement the shortage of manpower and enhance the quality of life for the elderly. The trend of integrating technology and health services in smart elderly care has received clear support and advocacy at the policy level.
National policy support has injected momentum into the development of intelligent elderly care. This year’s government work report has explicitly proposed to strengthen the application of scientific and technological research and development in health and elderly care, and a State Council document has also identified “creating a new business model for smart health and elderly care” as an important task. During the National Two Sessions, smart elderly care became a hot topic of discussion among the deputies and committee members.
Digital technology plays an increasingly important role in the construction of the elderly care service system, helping us actively face the challenge of an aging population. For example, wearable devices can monitor the health of the elderly and provide safety warnings; elderly care service information platforms connect homebound elderly with service providers, improving service quality; support for elderly people using digital tools for social participation helps maintain their mental health.
Experts’ research indicates that the intelligent elderly care model is gradually being realized. Relying on information technologies such as smart wearable devices and remote monitoring, it provides not only detection and alert services but also emotional communication and social relationship management for the elderly. This means that developing high-end companion robots to replace human labor has become a key task within the industry. In the future, these robots will not only be able to complete household chores and manage finances but will also provide emotional support and assist the elderly in handling their social relationships.
The rapid development of smart medical care and artificial intelligence (AI) technology is of great significance to the elderly care industry. Currently available chat AI robots can offer the elderly comfort and act as a bridge to the modern era, which is crucial for them. Elderly communities have also begun to use smart speakers and other devices to provide comprehensive services through human-machine dialogue. The elderly can obtain various lifestyle services through interactions with machines, meet their daily needs, and even trigger rescue procedures in emergencies.
As China’s elderly population grows rapidly, an innovative model of elderly care has emerged, namely intelligent home-based elderly care services. Against this background, members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference have actively put forward relevant proposals, calling for the strengthening of the construction of this service. It is understood that a home environment created by high technology can effectively monitor the health of the elderly and make emergency contact with the outside world, receiving a quick response and greatly satisfying the needs of the elderly for home-based care.
The proposals suggest promoting the application of information technology in community-based elderly care services, thereby significantly improving the level of intelligence and convenience of home-based care. They advocate for the use of technological innovation to expand intelligent service products such as assistive dining, dressing, and bathing, and to reduce the cost of using these devices. At the same time, they accelerate the promotion of wearable sensing devices for the elderly, and utilize “one call for help” intelligent devices to improve the level of elderly care services.
Currently, the population of elderly people aged 60 and above in our country has reached 297 million, with those aged 65 and above accounting for 15.4%. Faced with such a large aging society, the elderly care service industry is particularly prominent in its talent shortage. Not only is there a lack of hands in the industry, but the age structure of service personnel is skewed towards older groups, and the need to improve professionalization is urgent. Experts point out that with the decline of family care manpower and the increasing demand for professional nursing by the disabled and semi-disabled elderly, China’s elderly care services are facing a human resources dilemma. Therefore, developing smart elderly care and exploring the use of intelligent devices to replace some manpower is a viable path.
In light of this situation, the civil affairs departments plan to take measures to continuously improve the social security system, the elderly care service system, and the health support system. In perfecting the elderly care service system, key points of work include clarifying the main body of elderly care service supply and improving service quality. Additionally, progress in home-based elderly care services will be promoted, such as advancing the transformation of homes for the elderly and building smart home-based elderly care beds.
At the national level, there are suggestions to strengthen the construction of the “home-based elderly emergency rescue map”, improve the smart health elderly care public service platform, and realize the interconnection of elderly care information. Through these measures, intelligent devices will not only become more humanized, but home-based elderly care services will also become more convenient and feasible. Experts also suggest that just as the application of digital technology in the economic field is valued, its application in the field of people’s livelihoods should be valued equally, and by taking advantage of technological applications, more people can enjoy the benefits brought by digitalization.
In the current situation where the digital economy is thriving, a new type of online shopping cash-out method has emerged quietly and is rapidly spreading in the market. This method involves funds amounting to billions and has sparked widespread concern and discussion.
Nowadays, consumers tend to pursue a convenient and fast shopping experience when shopping online. However, criminals take advantage of this demand by adopting highly covert methods and carrying out illegal cashing out through complex financial operations. On the surface, they seem to be engaging in normal online transactions, but in reality, they are concealing the illegal flow of funds through false transactions.
This behavior not only erodes the honest business environment but also seriously disrupts the normal market order. While public security authorities are continuously strengthening the supervision of the online market, they are also intensifying efforts to crack down on such criminal activities. As ordinary consumers enjoy the convenience of online shopping, they should also stay vigilant to prevent their rights from being infringed upon.
