What Is Elder Care?
The Geriatric population in the country has been rising for the years. By the year 2030, it is projected to rise by 41%. The system of families living in a close-knit structure with regular correspondence and taking care of each other is a very prominent setting in the Indian culture. As our elderly age, we are more and more drawn towards them into taking care of them as well as helping them with their all tasks and chores, however they like.
On one hand, this is excellent news as this close-knit family system in India helps ease off the pressure from elder care, thanks to the engagement of various family members happily joining into the caretaking process. However, on the other hand we are all aware of how rapidly the family structure and settings are changing in India. Due to this, the expectations of elderly care services along with the promises for a better quality of life for the elderly population are both, also on a rise.
The Importance Of Elder Care
Just like every other change, this change in the family structures in India will have drastic impacts in terms of social, financial, health as well as environmental changes to name a few. Most of these factors and changes will pose as limitations that will need a large amount of adaptation coupled with rigorous active effort. Today, we have numerous elderly care services in plenty that are easily available all around us. With the help of these professional services, we are enabling the much-required active effort that we need in order to ensure that our life is smoother and all the hiccups are handled with expert care and awareness.
Hence, social support is of prime importance in the elder care area as one wants to avoid social isolation which is so common in old age because of physical and health limitations. With this support if started at home then the confidence of the senior citizen is maintained and they can navigate the external environment with ease and surety.
Elder Care, The Need Of The Hour: WHY?!
For anyone looking for guidance for caring for their elderly, there are a few key points to consider, which are essentially prerequisites for elder care. They are:
- The ones taking care of the elderly need to have a fair enough understanding of the personality of the seniors that they take care of. This is important not just in terms of improving the quality of life of the elderly but also to enable the elder care givers better understand their patients and help them in a more personalised manner.
- Extending help only when asked is probably the best thing that can be done as a part of elder care. If elder caretakers go on to help them out of their way for each and everything, it may make them feel incapacitated and even weak in some sense, which can be crushing for their spirit and energy. Letting the senior citizens make their own decision as much as possible, even when they make some or the other minor mistakes from time to time is a measure of betterment of their quality of life. Making them feel empowered and help them feel secured is the ultimate aim of elderdly care, caretakers are just enabling them to do so along with some chores here and there.
- Language, cultural leanings and actions should be in line with the worldview of the seniors. This is essential to ensure for them that they do not end up feeling overwhelmed with any novelties surrounding them. Thus, it makes the compliance very easy.
- Every family should make sure to have the elderly as a part of any decision making process. Including them for decisions, be it major or minor, makes the elderly feel they have an upper hand and say in things, as it goes in our Indian culture as a mark of respect and care.
- Take suggestions and share inputs with seniors for a healthy exchange of ideas and opinions. Make every discussion with eldelry always a two way street. This is important for them to feel purposeful and have a healthy self-image. Besides, they may have invaluable insights, given the experiences they have had over the years of their exposure to the world.
- Make sure the house is properly assessed for preventing them from falling near the edges by tripping as well as to keep the navigation easier for the senior citizens everywhere in their vicinity.
- Having a geriatrician assess the multiple chronic conditions from time to time is an essential component of elderly care routine that elder care takers should be vigilant of. This, followed by following the advice received from these specialists provides caretakers with a larger holistic view, which is very important.
Currently, we are lucky to have a plethora of elderly care services to manage each and every complexity with expert ease. These services are:
- Home care services or home nursing services
- Short-term care services
- Long-term living facilities
- Memory care facilities
- Senior clubs for recreation and social care
Highlighting the Value of Elder Care
Elderly people have seen the way we cannot, they have far more experiences, far many struggles and lessons they learned over the years. We have to much to learn from them and it can even be made to happen as a part of elder care. It is hence, a two-way street. Let’s see how:
- It helps avoid all the blind spots in your communication with the elderly.
- Including your elders socially can work great for them psychologically as well as in terms of taking care of their ailments as well.
- Including your elders in conversations that are difficult for you can turn those conversations to be surprisingly well and easy for the young ones.
- Make your homes a safe space for the elderly, taking all provisions for their health and basic requirements. This is because they need us as much as we need them!
- For elder care, there are a wide range of personalized senior care services that are available today. We can utilise these to teh best to provide the best possible to our elders. Protribe is one such provision.
How Protribe Can Help You With Elder Care
We, at Protribe Smart Wellness for Seniors, are committed to helping you in your time of need with dementia care. We have a number of services that can help the seniors and caregivers of dementia care during this time such as nursing and attendant services which can be round the clock. These nurses are well-trained and are able to manage the condition well. Some of our services are:
- We offer to counsel to the caregiver, services like sound healing, meditation, yoga, wellness, and social and recreational services as well under dementia care.
- We have psychologists and psychiatrists who work with the patient and family close by and dieticians and nutritionists as well who help with daily meal plans.
- We offer physiotherapy sessions and special memory care packages that include services like assisting the seniors to the hospital for their checkups too.
- We provide home diagnostic test facilities for some blood tests too.
- We have partnered with a short-term facility that provides long and short-term stays as well if the caregiver is traveling and the senior needs assistance.
- We will soon be launching a daycare centre as well for the seniors to come to spend time and also enjoy some recreational activities.
We at Protribe believe in bringing SMART in-person and virtual elder care services at home to seniors to assist them with the overall day-to-day management and care, including medication management and tracking improvement in the condition and overall safety of the seniors. The cognitive and non-cognitive therapies that we provide are customized and designed to the need of each senior. Lastly, our new program, the Buddy System, brings a senior with a young student or professional, and then they engage with the senior regularly, get check-ups done through the phone or by personally visiting, and socialize with him or her as per the needs of the senior. This program aims to strengthen and corroborate support, friendship, and companionship, especially for those seniors whose family members live far from them. Remember, we’re just a phone call away!
