When Chen ran back home in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, from his workplace in Shanghai, he was shocked to find that his parents, who lived by themselves, were both dead.

More surprisingly, the father was estimated to have been dead for around 10 days, and the mother, who has Alzheimer's, might have died a week after her husband as a result of dehydration and hunger.

It was not the first time that a similar accident has happened. In July 2013, an 82-year-old man, living on his own in Yangpu district, was found dead in his bathtub after his neighbor noticed something wrong and called police.

Aging has imposed a variety of social problems across China, and Shanghai is no exception. According to government statistics, the city had more than 3.87 million residents over 60 years old at the end of 2013. The group accounted for 27.1 percent of the registered population, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous year.

As many as 235,100 residents over 60 lived alone last year, according to last year's figures, up from 233,500 at the end of 2012.

A 2004 citywide survey of senior citizens living alone found that 8 percent of them worried that there could be no rescue in an emergency. Public opinion and the country's laws have urged children to shoulder their responsibility to pay regular visits to their parents and take proper care of them. But based on the tragedies that have already occurred, we cannot rely on the children to solve the problem.

While the city government has been advocating home-based care service for the aged, it should also guarantee that sufficient public resources are invested in this sector. Shanghai has tried different ways in doing this.

Civil affairs authorities in districts like Yangpu, Hongkou and Putuo paid for telephone greeting services for some elderly people living alone. Designated personnel would regularly call these senior residents to check if everything was OK. However, the service is only available for people of a certain age and with financial difficulties. The 82-year-old man who passed away in his bathtub was not part of this government-funded plan.

And even if people are entitled to this service, it cannot effectively help in an emergency. It is essential for the authorities to popularize the use of intelligent devices to help detect any possible accident in these seniors' homes.

There is one called Jujiabao that can automatically send an alarm to the center once it detects a gas leak, smoke or no movement in the apartment for eight to 12 hours. However, these devices have been installed in a limited number of homes. It was reported that only a bit more than 20,000 homes had been equipped with Jujiabao by mid-2013.

One major reason is that people need to pay for these devices. It will be a huge burden on the government budget if the authorities pay for all the devices to be equipped in these families. But I believe civil affairs authorities should evaluate the conditions of specific families and subsidize a certain number of them for these devices if they are found to be necessary.

In addition to all the efforts the government can make, we need to improve the problems by strengthening the ties between neighbors. Just imagine in the old days when we all stayed in close touch with our neighbors. Everyone in the neighborhood knew well each other and always stayed in close contact. Such bonding can also reduce the chances of accidents. But nowadays, many of us barely know our neighbors. We should have the awareness to get better acquainted with our neighbors so that we can lend a helping hand in an emergency.