Reply to What's the best elder model to unburden our own children

Forum Index » Eldercare

Reply to "What's the best elder model to unburden our own children"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]OP, I think about this a lot, because I am a caregiver to a severely disabled spouse. I assume he'll pass before me... and then who will take care of me if I need help?

Here are my random thoughts:

Most people want to live independently because they want control over their daily schedule. They want to eat dinner when they want, not when the cafeteria/meal service is serving dinner.

You can outsource a lot of your daily care needs, if necessary, as long as you have use of your hands and mind.  Meals can be ordered and delivered - just open up and heat. You can hire someone to take out your garbage and clean your house, do your laundry. You can even hire a company to take care of your house if needed -- all cheaper than moving into assisted living.

You can hire a companion, get help from a friend neighbor or family member, with a lot of the smaller stuff.

The expensive part of care happens when you have trouble with the big stuff, the stuff beyond what a neighbor or friend can help with, and stuff you'd rather your kids not have to deal with:

- toileting (getting on and off, not falling, able to take clothes off and on, and wiping
- showering and bathing
- getting yourself dressed in the AM and undressed at night.
- actually taking medication (touching it and putting it in your mouth) - even aides aren't supposed to do that for you. They can remind you but they need a special certification or need to be an RN to handle medication.
- staying on top of medication reorders
- complicated trips to multiple doctors.
- fall risk
- tranferring to wheelchair from bed
- difficulty feeding yourself

A few of these can be postponed if you move somewhere very accessible or if you renovate your house to be super accessible.

Put in a first floor "en suite" bathroom with a walk in/roll in shower and multiple safety bars, as well as a tolet with a bidet.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics