Caregiving for parents is a double edged sword, most days you love them and somedays you just put your hands up. This love and hate situation is very common amongst family Caregivers.
The larger point of debate is, at what stage do Caregivers start feeling the stress? To be honest, even I don't have an answer, but then as the word Caregiving states, it means Care and giving (it is only giving and not taking) irrespective of the time and day.
Life takes a full circle as we grow older, the father becomes the son and the son becomes the father.
People who were fiercely independent in their younger days start becoming dependent upon others, which at times feels like helplessness but then that's the law of the land.
The fast changing demographic shift in the population of older people along with increasing nuclear family structure is going to become a challenging task to cater to in the near future.
The social, medical, healthcare, recreational, well-being needs of senior citizens, especially those who are living alone or as aged couples will become humongous. And if we as a society have to look after our elders then we should have taken this subject very seriously as of yesterday.
There are two main caregiving models for Elderly Care; Home Care and Care Homes. The real issue is about affordability and accessible services by the larger population who are not that financially strong to afford private sector care.
Socially developed countries have already started facing budget constraints w.r.t social care and Aged Care and India should take lessons from these case studies because this cannot be a cut copy paste system. Homegrown, affordable and realistic frameworks and implementation models have to be created otherwise we will have a situation which might be difficult to resolve.
During our Global Experts Interviews podcast with Dr.Mrigna Nagraj, there were two main inputs and views which we received from our esteemed guests; firstly Eldercare should be a holistic approach and not become a medical solution, secondly there is need for both Home Care and Care Homes, it's based on an individual's condition and requirements.
To conclude, with the rising costs for Senior Care, many communities are going back to the joint family system, it saves on real estate, caregiving costs and helps maintain the family support structure.
Do visit our website: elderlycareindia.org for free resources and information.
Pankaj Mehrotra
