If you're feeling sad and lonely…
- Source: Global Times
- [09:18 April 15 2010]
- Comments
Photo: Courtesy of the community health service center on West Chang'an Street
By Song Yuanyuan
Lin, a 65-year-old, recently retired government employee, lives alone in Jinrongjie, Xicheng district. His wife passed away three years ago and his two children have moved away, including one who went overseas. He's lonely.
"I miss my wife a lot. I always feel nostalgic, but I have nobody to talk to. My parents have passed away and my children have their own families and careers. I know they are busy, so cannot bother them a lot. But this feeling of loneliness has worsened to fear and worry. Plus, I already have some heart problems; I am really afraid that some day I will die alone. So I feel I may have also some mental problems, because of all of these issues," Lin sighed. "Every time I listen to the song Come Back Home More Often [about children living far from their parents], I weep." By this point in our conversation, Lin was sobbing.
For Lin and people like him, there's hope from the Xicheng district government, which recently opened a "Healthy Sunset Psychological Hotline" to serve the down-and-out among its approximate 166,000 senior citizens.
Expert help
The hotline, the first of its kind at the district level, takes calls from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, from their room in the community health service center on West Chang'an Street. Three professional psychologists, including Dr Deng Jun, a prominent psychological consultant who holds the highest level of certification in the field and who is regularly featured on CCTV and CRI, will be on-call to consult with seniors about their problems.
"I feel so much better after Dr Deng's comforting words, her voice has such a strong affinity," said Lin, who called the center after finding the hotline in a newspaper. "I will go to see Dr Deng in person when I have a chance," he added.
The Senior Citizens' Affairs division of the Civil Affairs Bureau co-founded the hotline with 100,000 yuan in state financial support. "We have received quite a lot of calls every day. Old parents and their children are all very welcoming of this free service," division director Hao Bin told Lifestyle.
The hotline is part of an effort to further implement Beijing government's "Jiuyang" policy. Officially known as "The Measures on How to Take Care of Beijing's Senior and Disabled Citizens," Jiuyang was enacted on the first day of 2010 to provide better, more humane services for Beijing's elderly. It includes nine rules, and the seventh clearly aims to provide more mental health care for the elderly and the disabled through various means, including phone consultations, door-to-door service and full use of professional psychological organizations.
The elderly can either talk with the doctors on the phone or call to schedule a face-to-face appointment. There is no extra cost beyond normal phone fees, nor are there charges for the in-person consultations. If the patient is deemed to be suffering from a more serious physiological illness, he or she will be advised to visit a hospital for treatment.
Li Ling, chief physician at the health center, told Lifestyle that they receive about 20 calls per day, each lasting about half an hour. In addition, there are regular walk-in patients. "Though our doctors are kept busy and exhausted every day, we still feel glad that we're providing this platform for the elderly to talk openly about their concerns, psychologically and emotionally, " Li said.
