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assignment_2_louden21.docxRunning head: PLANNING FOR THE CARE OF THE ELDERLY 1
PLANNING FOR THE CARE OF THE ELDERLY 4
Planning for care of Elderly
Latonya Louden
E. Thompson
English 115
08/16/2015
Planning for the Care of the Elderly
My grandmother holds a very special place not only in my heart but in the hearts of every member of our family. She has sacrificed a lot for her children and her grandchildren so that we all can have a better life. When my mother was financially unable to provide us with certain things, my grandmother always came through. She is the pillar of our home and most (if not all) of us would be lost without her. She has struggled for nearly forty years to provide for her entire family. She was a full-time weaver for nearly thirty years after which she took a housekeeping job that she held for another 15 years. All this was done in order for her to help our family stay afloat financially.
Now she is really old and it seems that she needs additional care. Providing this care would be a great honor for both my family and I. We want to take care of her the way she has been taking care of us throughout the years and thus the family meeting to discuss her welfare.
After carrying out extensive research on the matter, I came to the conclusion that it is possible to lengthen my grandmother’s years through long-term planning. This long-term planning will ensure that she has many more years here with us and she remains healthy and independent for many more years than would have been expected if we did not look into the issue of elderly care.
According to Francese (2003), discussing the issue now rather than later will assist most family to avoid many of the financial pitfalls that go along with unprepared elderly care. Discussing the issue beforehand helps the family members prepare financially and emotionally for the difficult process of taking care of an aged parent. This preparation will help reduce unexpected expenses and also help families to come up with the best strategies of taking care of the elderly amongst them.
Research indicates that about 20% of the country’s population will consist of individuals who are 65 and older by 2030. By 2000, elderly people only comprised about 6-9% of the population. This sharp increase in the projected number of elderly people who will need assistive care is attributed to the decline in death rates for younger generations, better nutrition as well as health care (Francese, 2003).
Francese (2003) also estimates that a person born in 1991 is expected to live well beyond his 70s which is 28 years older than a child born in the 1900s. Due to this trend, providing assistive medical care to the elderly has become quite common. Nearly 65% of elderly people will rely on friends and family for assistive care in this day and age. A prudent family will realize this and plan for how it can care for its elderly members.
In order to adequately cater to the needs of my aging grandmother, there are a few things we need to do. The first objective is setting reasonable and achievable goals. Our main goal is to ensure that my grandmother is as comfortable as possible during the few years she has left. We also want to ensure that she remains healthy and independent for as long as possible.
According to Beckham and Nolan (1991), expectations in this scenario should also be realistic. When you take care of someone you naturally expect that you will be doing so for a long time coming. We have to realize from the get-go that our grandmother is old and we cannot take care of her forever. Somewhere along the line she will pass away and we have to acknowledge that we do not have any power over that.
The second thing we need to understand when it comes to taking care of the elderly is that sometimes we might need help in caring for our grandmother. Currently, we are all either working or in school and with families of our own that we need to take care of. There are many time constraints as a result and it might turn out that we cannot give our grandmother the best care.
In such a scenario, it is okay for us to put her in a home or hire someone who can be with her 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This does not mean that we do not love her, rather we lover enough to allow someone who can do a better job to take care of her. We can also ask extended family members for assistance. Beckham and Nolan (2003) believe that it is important to note that only about 7% of elderly individuals who need care and have a family caregiver are in institutions for the elderly. If we can plan ourselves properly, we might be able to sustainably care for our grandmother without the need for her to go into a home.
We should also realize that we need to take care of ourselves first before we can afford that kind of care to our grandmother. As we embark on this journey of taking care of grandmother, every member involved needs to ensure that their health is not being compromised in any way. Each member needs to learn how to communicate/express his/her feelings regarding the issue and if the situation is burdening him more than another member of the family.
It is also important to note that taking care of our grandmother is not a one person job. It is not up to the eldest in the family to take care of her or the most financially stable or the one with the least responsibilities. Each of us should make a collective initiative in ensuring that our grandmother lives out her golden years peacefully, happily and comfortably. This way, no member will feel pressurized or overburdened with the prospect of taking care of my grandmother on his own.
References
Francese, P. (2003). Trend Ticker: Investing in Demographics. Journal of American Demographics.
