Despite the existence of ready-made transportation like Uber and the promise of futuristic self-driving cars on the horizon expanding how we travel in vehicles, there remains a fundamental problem with building living environments around vehicle transportation. If you guessed our aging population then you’re right on track. Here’s why it’s a problem and what should be done to solve it.
As your parents age, providing them with the best quality of life available becomes a top priority. Although many still thrive and require little assistance well into their 80s, that is not always the case. Starting as early as their 60s, your parents may need assistance with health care and basic daily needs – assistance that you may not have the resources to provide. You may still have your own children at home, or lack the funds, space, time or proximity to personally provide the help. You are not alone. As the Baby Boomers age into senior citizenship, many adult children of seniors are left struggling with a solution to elder care that strikes the right balance for their parents and their lifestyle.
The aging process can change a myriad of relationships. The “sandwich generation” is a term that’s frequently used to describe those who have children at home and who simultaneously have to take care of parents or grandparents. This situation can lead to stress, and it can also be quite costly.
A majority of humans are caring by nature. Archaeologists recently dug up the bones of a human who lived around 500,000 years ago. Further study of the bones showed that they belonged to an elderly, disabled man who may have had trouble walking or carrying a heavy load. It is obvious that he lived as long as he did because he had support from other people. This information suggests that senior care is at least half a million years old and that empathy and caring are essential human characteristics.
When daily tasks become too much for your parents to handle, one option is to hire home care services to lend a hand and monitor their health. With a qualified, compassionate caregiver, your parents adapt and get to stay in their own home.
The term elder care has many meanings and may even conjure many different images based on your experience and what kind of interpretations you’ve been exposed to.
In many other countries, extended families live together until death do you part. Most Americans don’t follow those same traditions, however. Instead, once you move out of the nest, you don’t want the nest to move back. As a result, many seniors have been left to fend for themselves … until the time when they can no longer manage living independently because of: