BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Despite the winter chill outside, the atmosphere inside the memory care unit at Taikang Community Yan Garden, a senior residential community in Beijing's northern suburbs, remains lively as the year draws to a close.
Veteran senior care specialist Li Qinggang could recently be found humming a classic tune alongside an elderly female resident who has a cognitive impairment. As he hummed, she tapped her hand to the rhythm and her face lit up with a smile.
For Li, these moments of connection are precious, but his role has evolved significantly over the past few months. He has transitioned from a frontline supervisor managing a unit of some 20 residents to a training manager overseeing the professional development of more than 200 staff members in the community.
This shift in his career trajectory mirrors the broader professionalization of China's elderly care sector.
Li is among China's emerging generation of senior care specialists -- a new profession that was recognized officially by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in July this year. Unlike traditional caregivers, these specialists are interdisciplinary professionals who master a comprehensive range of skills, including health assessment, medical support, rehabilitation, psychology, nutrition, service quality management, and care plan formulation and implementation.
"I used to care for the seniors myself. Now, I'm training more professionals to do so," Li said. "The responsibility is heavier, but the significance is greater."
His transition from practitioner to mentor is built on nearly eight years of frontline experience, particularly in the challenging field of dementia care.
He remembers a case involving an elderly woman who had been driven by a compulsion to use the toilet nearly 100 times a day. After ruling out physiological causes, Li analyzed her needs and designed a personalized, non-drug intervention. Tapping into her passion for knitting, he provided an elderly-friendly knitting board to divert her attention and modified her bathroom environment to reduce visual stimulation. The strategy proved effective, gradually reducing frequency to a normal range.
For Li, such behaviors often mask unmet needs that can be addressed through environmental optimization, care method adjustments and improved communication.
He has applied this philosophy to many cases involving residents with dementia, organizing art therapy classes for painting enthusiasts, designing hands-on tasks for former engineers and cultivating a small vegetable garden for those with a keen appreciation for nature.
"Our job is to find the key to reopening the door of communication, and to rebuild emotional connection," Li said.
Today, he is teaching these new kinds of solutions to others, moving beyond simple feeding and cleaning to provide dignified, personalized care. He has also contributed to a training manual that is now used as a key reference by more than 20 other senior residential communities across China.
Li's professional growth has come at a time when China is grappling with a rapidly aging society. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that by the end of 2024, China's population aged 60 or above had reached 310.31 million. And experts predict that figure will exceed 400 million by about 2035.
"Faced with such a massive and diverse elderly population, traditional care models are challenged," said Wu Leilei, a human resources executive at Taikang Community. She noted that the rise of senior care specialists is critical to ensuring the well-being of the elderly.
Wang Yongchun, an expert member of the national working commission on aging, noted that a core issue in the sector is the mismatch between professional supply and diverse demand, which calls for continued efforts to strengthen the elderly care talent pool -- senior care specialists, in particular.
In response to such challenges, Chinese authorities have continued to accelerate policy support. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued a guideline to expedite the recognition of vocational skill levels among elderly care professionals, aiming to smooth the career development path for practitioners like Li.
As 2026 approaches, Li has set new goals: to promote mature, tested care models to benefit more seniors with cognitive impairments, and to bring more young talent into the field.
"For me, the core of an ideal aging society is happiness," Li said. "Allowing every elder to live in comfort and dignity is my original aspiration and mission." ■
