Li Minhua, founder and CEO of Keyi Assisted Bathing Co. Ltd., helps a senior citizen bathe in Beijing on August 30 (COURTESY PHOTO)
After an 85-year-old Beijing resident surnamed Zhang lost his ability to move due to a stroke last year, it has been difficult for him to have a bath.
The bathroom in Zhang's home is too small for a bathtub and even if there was a bathtub, his condition would make it too risky to lift him in and out. His wife, surnamed Chang, is in her 70s and is only able to clean him with a wet towel. However, this method is not capable of cleaning his body thoroughly and Chang was worried that the lack of hygiene could lead to a smell and increase the risk of bedsores. Chang searched online and found an assisted bathing company providing bathing services to the elderly at home. She began using the service once a month.
On August 7, after Chang booked the service online, company staff arrived quickly. They first inflated a blue bathtub two meters long and 0.8 meter wide, and then wrapped a piece of disposable plastic over it. The tub has two tubes: one is connected to the tap to fill the tub and the other discharges wastewater into the toilet. This ensures that the water in the tub is clean. The workers adjusted the temperature of the water in the tub to 40 degrees Celsius and added a bag of herbal medicine to prevent diseases. They then took Zhang's body temperature, pulse and blood pressure to ensure he was in good condition. Two male workers carried Zhang from the bed to the tub and covered his body with a bath towel to protect his privacy. The whole bathing process took over an hour and during the process, the workers chatted with Zhang to help him relax.
After the bath, the staff dried Zhang with a towel, carried him back to the bed and dressed him, before taking his temperature, pulse and blood pressure again.
This set of procedures was formulated by Li Minhua, founder of the company. The service costs 400 yuan ($57.5) and is usually performed by two to three people, with those doing the washing being of the same gender as the client.
Li previously worked as a sales director of a foreign automobile parts company but resigned from the company in 2016 to take a rest.
As she had majored in Japanese in university and served mostly customers from Japan and the Republic of Korea, she had the opportunity to learn about the well-developed elderly care service system in Japan. In Japan, there is a mature market for bathing services and some elderly people order these services twice a week.
After doing market research, Li found there were only four companies providing specialized bathing services in Beijing and fewer than 20 such companies in the whole country. However, the potential market demand for the services is large. Statistics from the China National Committee on Aging show that there were more than 42 million people aged above 60 with disabilities in China in 2020, accounting for 16.6 percent of the nation's elderly. The Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau revealed that there were around 140,000 senior citizens with severe disabilities in Beijing as of August 2021.
Li founded Keyi Assisted Bathing Co. Ltd. in March last year and imported the necessary equipment from Japan. The company now has a team of six: three men and three women.
Care for the elderly
Li said to become a member of her team, one needs to be kind-hearted, patient and have respect for the elderly.
Li remembers when she first offered bathing service to a customer, she felt embarrassed. "However, my embarrassment is nothing compared with the comfort derived by the elderly from bathing," she said.
Tang Bo, who had previously worked as a member of airport ground crew, joined the company in May.
Before going to a new customer's home, Tang would learn about the customer's background from his children and look for topics he might be interested in.
One customer in his 90s has left a deep impression on Tang. The customer, who has Alzheimer's, had resisted his caretaker's and daughter's attempts to give him a shower. Before Tang's first visit, the man hadn't bathed for a year.
To win his trust, Tang chatted with him first. After helping the old man bathe multiple times, the two became friends and the old man now looks forward to seeing him every week to chat with him.
Tang said many bed-ridden elderly people are lonely and the assisted bathing service also provides them with an opportunity to interact socially.
Bright prospects
However, Li said as few people know about the services, her company has served only 300 to 400 customers since its establishment, which is far below her expectations.
To promote the services when the company was first established, Li contacted a community in Beijing with an offer to provide 100 elderly people with disabilities free bathing services. However, the family members of many refused out of fear they might catch cold.
Also, some families are unable to afford the services or think the price too high, although Li said 400 yuan is not expensive at all given the costs. Three people are needed for each bath, and there is also the cost of the equipment and transportation for the workers.
Nonetheless, Li is confident about the prospects of the industry. "It takes time to cultivate a customer base and as the number of people in need of such services increases and more people come to know the services, assisted bathing will become increasingly accepted and sought after," she told Beijing Review.
As China becomes an increasingly aging society, Li wants to involve more people in the industry to provide tailored services to elderly people with disabilities and enable senior citizens to live a decent life.
(Print Edition Title: Showered With Care)
