Qualitative analyses of lived experience for residents in the Elderly Care Departments at the community health service centres in Southwestern China.

With its huge ageing population, China faces an enormous challenge for its elderly support and care. One of the proposed solutions was to diversify the elderly support systems. Towards this goal, setting up the Elderly Care Departments in the community health service centres is one of such new Chinese endeavour. This qualitative study was conducted among the residents enrolled in existing Elderly Care Departments established at the community health service centres in Chongqing, a Southwestern Chinese city, to evaluate the lived experience of the residents and to find strategies for improvement. Eighteen participants were recruited from the residents of the Elderly Care Departments of three community health service centres in the city. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth individual interviews and were analysed utilising the Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Five main themes were identified: Safety and trust; Satisfaction and relief; Gratitude and mutual understanding; Complaints and helplessness; and Worries and apprehension. We found that set-up of the Elderly Care Departments at the community health service centres appeared to be consistent with the idea of integrated care and in general, the current running mode was able to provide the elderly with effective medical, nursing and other cares. The psychological and cultural services at these departments, however, need to be further enhanced.