a guide to caring for elderly parents

caring for age parents

As time passes by, the same hands that cared for us now require help and assistance to get by their daily lives. Ageing parents is a reality and something that is beyond our control. However, we can provide the best care and assistance to our elderly parents to help them be comfortable and safe in this transition.

To be able to provide the best care to your ageing parents it is important to be prepared and be educated about their needs and concern. So here are a few elderly care tips that can help you be better prepared to face the situations that may arise in elderly care and help to do away all the stresses related to it.

Pay Attention to their needs

This is the first step and probably one of the most important steps towards planning and preparing to provide care for parents. As a primary caregiver, it is your responsibility to identify their daily activities and mark out the areas they need help and assistance with. For instance – Do they require assistance for personal grooming activities or can they still cook their meals? Also make a note of their health and mobility issues, so that you can be properly prepared for giving the best care to your elderly parents. 

Choose what type of living arrangement is best for them

This is an important step to consider for people who are living away from their parents and cannot care for their parents personally. Choosing upon a living arrangement can be quite stressing since you want to be sure that your parents are being treated with love, care and patience. 
Some of the questions that can help you narrow down on the choice of a living arrangement include – do your parents need intensive elderly care services, can they go about their regular lives with the help of basic at-home elderly care services or do they need intensive palliative and medical care?  
While deciding upon the apt living arrangement for your parents, make sure to involve your parents in the decision. Assess whether the living arrangement selected would cater to their needs and requirement and would suit them or not.    

Budgeting Finances

Caring for the elderly can be expensive and can impact your finances, especially if your parents aren’t living with you. You need to anticipate their expenses to maintain their independence. Quite often your parents may not be comfortable or too willing to discuss their finances with you, but insist and have an open discussion about their finances so you can plan wisely and determine a sufficient budget for their care.

Visit and communicate with them regularly

This is an important factor for elderly care. Many times parents feel neglected and lonely and fall into depression. As such it is important to free up some time and spend it with your parents. This would not only take care of their emotional needs but would also help you in keeping a tab on their health and wellness and make for any changes in the care services they are getting.

getting the best care for parents 

Today quality care services for the elderly can easily be found across all major cities and towns of India. So even if you don’t live with your parents you can ensure they receive the best elderly care services. These care services include world standard assisted living facilities, that offer 24X7 care including basic nursing services to at-home care services provided by trained nurses and caregivers.

The at-home care for elderly services can easily be customised as per the person’s needs and requirements. As such you can easily choose from basic elderly care services to intensive home care services for the elderly which can include pain management, palliative care, providing physical therapies, skilled nursing, etc.Whatever, be your choice of elderly care services that you have chosen for your parent’s care, always remember these care services can only take care of your parents’ physical needs. It is you who needs to step up and provide for the emotional needs of your parents. Be more involved in your parents’ life, encourage them to be active in the community and social activities, visit them often and most importantly make them feel they are the same person they were 20 years ago.