Understanding Elderly Care

Understanding Elderly Care

Understanding Elderly Care

Introduction

No one can stem the tide of youth, for old age catches up with everyone. It is a global phenomena and one that needs to be addressed. The aspect of elderly care gathers greater significance in the light of the fact that families are becoming nuclear and want to stay that way. Hence this is not only a private concern but also a public one where the state or social institutions come into play.

Analysis Elderly people at home contribute greatly to the family environment enrichening the essence and spirit of existence. After a certain stage however, they cannot contribute actively to the family and tend to think of themselves as redundant. So not only do we have to cater to their physical needs but also to their emotional needs. This requires a lot of patience, immense understanding and the ability to keep cool and level headed at all times (Doty, 2000).

Caring for the elder is always a challenge and the older the person is, the more difficult it becomes. The sense of responsibility increases manifold. Sickness and ailments is something which seems to follow them and inevitably there are crises, which arise suddenly. A sudden heart attack, a broken hip or limb, side effects of medicines which cause allergies or respiratory and digestive infections which surface all the time—these are just some of the things that we have to take care of. During this time, in spite of regular work schedules, we have to make time to take care of them and their needs. Understanding their mental makeup and learning to identify signals, which spell their requirements, are very important aspects (Brody, 1999).

Elders do not always air their problems for fear of getting hurt, so learning to anticipate and doing things for them before they ask is appreciated greatly. It could be something as simple as giving a parent a hot water bag or massaging aching parts and it could be something a little bit more serious like administering the correct dose of insulin at the correct time for a diabetic patient or rendering timely first aid in the case of an asthmatic attack. Talking to them, cajoling them, and making them feel that they are needed are very important. They need to be humored and their views need to be considered in order to give them a sense of importance (Binstock, ...