Old age is time that makes you wise but also requires immense care. All of us need to understand why elderly care is important, not just for elders but for caregivers. While ageing, your body goes through a lot and becomes more vulnerable than before due to weakening immunity and the occurrence of other health issues. In such times, rendering care on the elderly by their loved ones and medical support becomes vital. Not just giving them love or support is enough, but care through medical support helps to identify problems before its start to turn severe and concerning.
When we say support, don’t just be satisfied with giving them healthy food and comfortable sleep but also better health services, nursing and care. Through in-home health care or at a facility, care of elderly gets the best support to find solutions, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Reasons to offer elderly care and support
- Understand their physical change
Much like many things in India, understanding and taking action towards ageing is very less cared upon. India is home to 104 million elder people, yet there are very few ways that help them to cope with physical and mental changes that come with age. Helping them through nurse to home or at a facility will make you more aware of what and how they feel at such an age. Adults feel often neglected by their loved ones, but under proper healthcare support, they’ll feel valued and be able to express more often.
- Give enough Importance
Ageing is inevitable as it’s a phase we all are going to experience. The working-age group is mostly busy with their life which often results in neglect of the older adults in the family. It’s in other ways being selfish because you consider yourself very important as you are at the moment strong and independent. Turning old, however, can result in dependency so rather than loathing someone, you can embrace them because it’s very natural. Prioritise the elders in your family and make them feel important. Take time out of your busy schedules for paying attention to your ageing parents and make them feel strong and independent again.
- Learn
Elders have seen life much more than we can and they’ve got an abundance of knowledge and values to offer. Those are real-life experiences that you won’t learn from Books or Movies. There’s so much to learn from them, past life lessons and stories of theirs can save you from making common life mistakes and tackle family and professional issues in the best possible way. It goes both ways, you can learn and teach new things to each other.
- Meet certain needs
Like children, older adults also have certain needs. The cause behind their needs can be entirely dependent on their health or their general behaviour. At most, adults feel deprived of communication, which often leads to feeling depressed and isolated. Then they go out to look for others who can make them feel wanted. You’ve got to make them feel home again.
- Understand Life
Building your life around and in the presence of elders can help you learn a lot about life. In Indian culture, we’ve always prioritised our parents and their values, so keep them with you at the end. People’s perspective on life can help to open your eyes and understand things happening around us. Many of us know too much, but confronting problems aren’t our best moves. Elders are the ultimate people who can teach a lot about life, family and ageing than any other teacher.
- Create peace
Seniors have lived most of their lives, catering to societal needs. It’s a pressure we’ve all come across, some choose to live with them while others defy them. At times, people from different generations can have distinctive perspectives on certain aspects of life but that doesn’t make them any less important. Elders who weren’t fortunate enough to live in the era of the internet had to put in a lot of work to make the person you are today, and it’s time to give them back their due credit. Even if you disagree with certain topics with them, make peace with them and don’t hold grudges. Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand a situation from their perspective and try to maintain a life with peace and harmony, cause at the end, that’s all that matters.
