5 Reasons Why Elderly Parents Need Help

However, as a part of life, they grow old too soon. The responsibilities here take a turn and it lies on the children to take care of their elderly parents now. By being the backbone of their life and supporting them in their time of need. However, your responsibility as their child doesn’t simply end by sending them to an old age housing near you, nor is it viable for you to let your elderly parents live alone. The important aspect lies in being there for them and asking them about what they would rather prefer. Listen to them and most importantly be patient throughout the entire process.

The majority of the senior citizens in India end up living alone. As their kids either work in a different country or a different state. As a professional, it is difficult for a person working far away to be able to cater to the needs of their aging parents. But this doesn’t mean we can ignore the various risks of them living alone. The needs of an elderly person and a toddler are often compared. It is true if we look at the behavior of the two. Just like a toddler an elderly person shows similar requirements. You will see the same stubbornness, anger, loss of control, etc. And one wouldn’t leave a toddler alone at home, then why leave your parents in a similar situation? Let us look at the reasons why your Elderly Parents need help Living alone.

Elderly Parents require help with on-time Medication and Meals.

As health is undeniably the most crucial when it comes to our loved ones especially, elderly people. Your elderly parents require timely and nutritious meals throughout their day. However, when it comes to cooking meals all 3 times of the day, we can’t expect our elderly parents living alone to do that . They are most likely to just eat whatever seems most conveniently available to them. Convenient eating is not always healthy.

Senior citizens are at most risk of forgetting things. Some even get diagnosed with disorders such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, and others. As a result, These disorders interfere in their timely eating. Apart from this many aging parents have other disorders that also require timely medications. Most medications are advised to be taken by the doctor at a specific time after due consideration. Not taking medications on time can have adverse long time effects on a patient’s health. As discussed previously many elderly people often start to forget at their age which can be troublesome to their health. This is why your elderly parents shouldn’t be left alone at home without any assistance in their meals and medications. 

Elderly age requires help with Hygiene maintenance and Grooming, maintaining good personal hygiene is essential for people of all age groups. Maintaining overall good hygiene helps in reducing the risk of catching various infections as well as spreading them. The ongoing pandemic has been a great lesson for everyone around, on how small acts of personal hygiene can be beneficial for all of us. Elderly people often lack the strength to maintain grooming and hygienic practices on a daily basis. Most of the elders complain of several joint pains which end up becoming a hindrance in maintaining good hygienic practices. Not having proper hygienic practices also results in less socialization.

Other than personal hygiene, maintaining the cleanliness of our surroundings also affects a person’s mental health and mood. Just thinking about a place where everything is messy and things are lying around on the floor, tables require dusting, gives one a feeling of discomfort. On the other hand, a clean house with healthy plants gives us joy. Imagine living in such conditions! 

Since our surroundings have a huge impact on our mood, they should be kept as tidy as possible. However, to expect from our elder parents living alone to manage all this isn’t justifiable. That doesn’t mean they deserve to live in such shabby conditions. These factors have an effect on the overall health of a person in the long run.

Elderly Parents Require Assistance in Household Chores

As it has been reiterated multiple times by many homemakers “the house doesn’t function itself” is a true statement. Managing a household is a huge continuous task. On a daily basis, it requires one to clean the house, do the dishes, wash the clothes, and prepare food. These tasks require a lot of work out of an individual. Even a young fit person will get exhausted doing this all day. How can we expect this from an elderly person? However, living alone would require them to attempt all this on their own daily, which can end up making them extremely exhausted.

Other than set household chores there are multiple small tasks that one might encounter on a daily basis, such as a defect in a faucet. An elderly person or elderly parents living alone won’t be able to manage to get hold of a good plumber and get the task done alone. This job would require physical labour on their part as well. One might even face a shortage of food supplies at an hour when no one is available to help around. Well, such situations are just applicable if worst comes to worst. But, one should definitely be prepared for such times especially in a case where our loved ones are involved.

They Require Help in Movement Indoor and Outdoor

We don’t see moving from one room to another like a huge or a special task. Walking seems like a simple task that any of us can easily do, however, it is not such a simple task when we look at it carefully.

The movement of one single muscle requires strong communication between the muscle and the brain. This process gets affected at old age. Elderly people are often more prone to get diagnosed with various muscle or neurological disorders both affecting their movement. Many elderly people who don’t have any movement disorder still end up having weak muscles and bones due to old age. This ends up making small movements difficult. These end up creating problems in their day-to-day life. They might have difficulty getting in and out of their bed, walking from the bedroom to the kitchen, going to the bathroom, and other similar tasks. Leaving a person alone in these times is nothing but inhuman.

Aging parents living alone would just not be able to do these tasks on their own. Besides doing the basic everyday tasks, every person requires some fresh air once in a while. Going outside alone in such conditions wouldn’t be the right thing to do. This could result in fatal accidents resulting in serious injuries. We can’t ask them to stay enclosed in isolation all the time. We can, however, hire a helper or a caregiver so they don’t have to live their life in restriction. The helper would help them manage their daily movement activities as well provide company during outdoor sessions. 

Elderly parents also Require Companionship

Everyone has one of those days when we feel the blues, our mood doesn’t seem right and we want someone to talk to about our emotions. Having someone to talk to is certainly essential to have sound mental health and the importance couldn’t be highlighted more. The importance has been explained in thorough detail in various mental health-related articles. It is more important for an elderly person to have someone to talk to. As we young professionals can make ourselves busy with our professional and social lives. But elderly people lack that part in their lives. They don’t have a professional life to keep them busy in the day hours. They also, hardly are able to connect with their old pals.

When a person’s life is spent in isolation and having no one to talk to they often fall trapped to various mental illnesses. Then they lose interest in life, and in daily tasks. They don’t even like to connect or talk to people they earlier used to enjoy with, they do not find the joys of life any longer. All this was a result of not getting companionship when they required it the most. All this can be avoided by providing them company either through a family member, by being present yourself or hiring a caregiver.

After reading through all the reasons on how risky it is to leave an elderly person alone, you certainly would be convinced in never leaving your elderly parents alone. However, one cannot handle all the life responsibilities alone. One individual cannot handle being the sole bread earner of the family and at the same time be present to cater to the needs of their aging parents. We all need help with some things in our lives. Something’s which we can’t do ourselves and there’s nothing wrong in asking or requiring help. There are various other ways in which one can avoid the problems associated with leaving their elderly parents alone. Let us look at these ways.

Taking Safety Measures in Advance

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This quote by Benjamin Franklin rightly fits here in this context. One cannot make the blunderous decision of not planning for an inevitable situation. When you already know that your parents require certain assistance and have certain needs which can be prepared for in advance, you must ensure to work on it.

If there are objects or furniture in the house that can be a tripping hazard for your elderly parents, make sure to find an alternative or shift the place of the furniture or the object well in advance. In case your house has stairs and your parents have problems with their joints or muscles make sure that they don’t need to climb those stairs and all the things required by them are already present near them. Planning these things ahead is crucial. As you can’t be present all the time can help aplenty in reducing the risks of potential injuries. 

Making Sure Help is easily Available 

Being present at the time of need is of utmost importance when above all it’s about your aging parents. As the above-mentioned point was about what can be done to prevent an incident from happening, this point is mainly about what can be done after something untoward might have happened. There are times when even after preparing well in advance for everything one might be presented with an unfortunate event, and in such a case one should already have certain things prepared.

In a situation like this, make the numbers of the ambulance, doctor, neighbours easily accessible for them. They can be already added to their speed dial or written in a place where it is readable even from afar. Talking to your neighbors well in advance and asking them if they would be willing to provide their kind assistance in a time of distress is essential, as they would be in the closest proximity to provide help. Keeping these things in mind is key for assuring the safety of your aged parents.

Hiring Eldercare Services

As stated earlier, requiring help from someone is nothing to be ashamed of, we all can’t manage everything ourselves. You can easily find eldercare services online. The specialized caregivers are trained and experienced to handle elderly people. They have the patience and practice to deal with the elderly. And what would be better than having a full-time person taking care of your parents at the comfort of their home? Think about this, you would also be providing a person with a home, and an employee who has dedicated their lives to caring for the elderly. However, it is also important to hire the right kind of caregiver for your elderly parents. It is necessary to hire someone for your parents who would be able to provide the exact care that they require.

To ensure you are hiring the correct person you need to have an answer to various questions. Is your requirement for patient care? Or do you want someone as a companion to your parents? Do they require full-time care or part-time? The answers to these questions would be detrimental in deciding the correct person for them. Safety is another issue that comes to people’s minds when thinking of hiring a caregiver, and it must, as their safety is of great importance. Conducting a background check on the person you hire becomes vital then. After a successful background check, you can hire the right person for your elderly parents’ needs, And the right person by your parents’ side would make all the difference.

Asking for a Relatives Help

A similar suggestion to the last point is to ask one of your relatives to help you out. It can be a cousin or some other family member to help you out in taking care of your parents. One wouldn’t want the relative to take it as a burden neither would we want to ask someone who isn’t suited for the work, so, make sure to only ask someone who is capable of handling the elderly and understands their need very well, another thing would be to make sure that your parents are comfortable with this arrangement, as what they want is the most crucial.

And another very vital point should be the willingness of the relative, this could only work in case a relative has previously shown interest in this task. You wouldn’t want them to feel obligated to do so, as it won’t work if they don’t put their entire energy and effort into it. 

In Conclusion

A love of family is truly unmatched, one will go beyond limits to make our special ones healthy and happy. Amid our chaotic lifestyle, we might forget the most important valued things of our lives, all the sacrifices that our parents made for our well-being, but it’s never too late. Realizing and understanding that even though they won’t say it but they have requirements too. It is after our realization that we can work upon things that actually require our attention.

Eldercare is a task with great responsibility, however, getting scared and leaving them to live alone isn’t the correct thing to do. It depends on you how you choose to take care of your elderly parents, in a way that it doesn’t become overburdening for you either. You can either hire help or prepare for things in advance. But one thing is clear: leaving them alone isn’t the right decision for their well-being.