An Analysis of the Need for a Legislative Initiative for Long-Term Care in China/UNE ANALYSE SUR LA NÉCESSITÉ D'UNE INITIATIVE LÉGISLATIVE POUR LES SOINS DE LONGUE DURÉE EN CHINE (2010)

Abstract: Presently, in China, the population is aging at an accelerating rate and the number of disabled people is increasing. In order to ensure that the disabled, old people and others live in dignity, a legislative initiative for is badly needed to regulate money-raising, institutions and nursing staff. The costs of should be included within the scope of social insurance in order to maintain social safety and share risk. As for institutions and nursing staff, because they involve management functions such as construction, health, labor and human resources, education and etc. and most of them are technical, related competent authorities should be authorized to set administrative regulations to form the standards for institution-founding and personnel training and evaluation. Key words: care; the elderly; legislative need Resume: Actuellement en Chine, la population vieillit a un rythme accelere et le nombre de personnes handicapees est en augmentation. Afin d'assurer que les handicapes, les personnes âgees et les autres peuvent vivre dans la dignite, une initiative legislative pour les soins de longue duree est absolument necessaire pour reglementer la collecte de fonds, les institutions de soins de longue duree et le personnel d'aide menagere. Les couts des soins de longue duree devraient etre inclus dans l'assurance sociale, afin de maintenir la securite sociale et de partager le risque. Quant aux institutions de soins et le personnel d'aide menagere, comme ils impliquent des fonctions de gestion tels que la construction, la sante, le travail et les ressources humaines, l'education etc et la plupart d'entre eux sont techniques, des autorites competentes appropriees devraient etre autorisees a etablir des reglements administratifs pour former les normes sur l'etablissement des institutions, la formation du personnel et l'evaluation. Mots-Cles: soins de longue duree; personnes âgees; necessite legislative The expression long-term care is originally from the English language. It is an unavoidable social problem for those countries in which the society is aging. The subjects of include not only the old, but also those people who need and professional nursing because of physical, psychiatric or psychological diseases or disabilities. According to the statistics of the Bureau of Chinese Civil Affairs there are presently 9.4 million disabled and elderly people within the whole nation, 1.94 million of which live in the city and 7.46 million of which live in the country-side. Besides, there are 18.94 million partially disabled and elderly people. Because of a lack of social care, the old and disabled affect negatively both sides of their families; therefore, there are dozens of millions of families troubled by the problem of caring for the old and disabled.2 Traditionally, we are inclined to accept that our own family should take on these responsibilities. However, in recent years, because the population is aging at an accelerating rate, more families have only one child and family structures are changing, so problems of family financial pressure, institutions and staff expert in gradually appear. Present laws and regulations are not enough to deal with those problems. Thus, in order to ensure the old and disabled and others live in dignity, we should enact a law to regulate as soon as possible, by using the power of government, to integrate different kinds of resources, to protect the rights and benefits of the disabled, and to increase the health of our citizens. 1. THE PROBLEMS ARISING The Bureau of Chinese Civil Affairs published a Statistic Report of the Development of Civil Affairs in 2008 in May, 2009, which showed that by the end of 2008, in China, there were 109.56 million people over 65 years old, taking 8.3% of the whole population, a rise of 0. …