Professor Jinyu LIU lectures on constructing a supportive social environment for Chinese older adults
China is quickening its pace of entering into an aging society. According to Professor Jinyu LIU, with the largest number of elderly people in the world, there is a pressing need for China to construct a supportive social environment.
The Beijing Center has long focused on issues in public health and aging. On July 14, Professor Liu, Associate Professor of School of Social Work at Columbia University and faculty of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, joined the Beijing Center and presented her recent studies that explore the effects of friendship, spousal and intergenerational relationships, household context and community resources on mental health among rural and urban older adults in China.
This lecture is also the fourth event in the 2019 Columbia Beijing Summer East Asian Studies Series, celebrating the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s 70th anniversary.
Professor Liu introduced the current aging issue facing China, calling upon family, friends, neighborhood to provide more support rather than to treat them as “burdens” of the society, especially in a family-oriented culture and society. Her research in this area offers crucial implications for developing social services that help strengthen the supportive social environments for older adults and improve their mental health, including to construct age-friendly facilities, to involve more professionals, and to develop more training programs for caregivers.
The event attracted more than 100 participants, and more than 104,000 people watched the event online.
