The Xinyi Christian Home for the Aged located in the center of Yiyang City in Hunan Province serves as a home for 25 senior citizens and despite the lack of rooms, it is preferred by seniors despite the overcrowded space it has for its current boarders. It started its operations on September 9. 2013 and at first, they only had two elderly boarders.
Prior to Establishing the Home
Before the Xinyi Christian Home for the Aged was established, there were several obstacles that almost prevented its establishment in Yiyang. One pastor was against the idea of establishing a nursing home because it would cause financial losses for the church and providing the amount of love for these elderly would not be easy to acquire.
Other groups argued that it should be the society that leads the initiative in creating such elderly homes and they should be the one which should run these facilities. The church must focus on things like preaching the gospel.
Regardless these opposing parties and those applicants hoping to get a slot stating that they would have to pay something which has "no love", the local CCC/TSPM still decided to establish the institution.
Additional Obstacles
In an interview with the president of the Xinyi Christian Home for the Aged Ms. Zhang, she highlighted several obstacles they faced in the first few years of the nursing home.
She remembered that the first person to move in the nursing home was 98-year-old Xia Yuzhen. Yuzhen has been in two near death experiences and recovered in each instance after one month of rest.
Given the different needs of each elderly, Zhang indicated that they need to make sure that each elderly is given satisfactory service or else they will complain and scold the staff. Each one of these elderly residents have different backgrounds. Some of them went to the nursing home because they have no where to go, while others do not have good relationships with their families. Others even go to Zhang's office to confide their troubles. For those who originally intended to stay there for a short time would stay longer since they got used to living in the nursing home.
Zhang cited that they often find it difficult to retain their nursing staff because they often resign in less than three months because of low wages, difficulties in handling the elderly residents and their characters. The nursing home tried to hire professional nurses through third party employers, but it did not push through due to the requirement of these nurses for higher salaries and specific working requirements. In the end, they recruited experienced people recommended by fellow Christians and those who look trustworthy for the job.
