Caregiving for Seniors

The good news: We’re all living longer !!
But what now??: A whole new set of challenges !!

At the beginning of the last century, the average life expectancy for newborns was 47.3 years. Today it is 77.8 years!! And that is only the average, as we all know people who are living well into their 80's and 90's. While that sounds great, this change in demographics for our population presents new challenges that society is just now beginning to understand and tackle. And one of the biggest challenges: what types and quantity of services and resources will be needed and how will they be delivered as the proportion of “elderly” in our population increases significantly. The term “caregiving” has evolved to generally include this broad range of services.

A short, but not comprehensive, list of some currently available options for elderly “caregiving” could include the following:
-Family caregivers
-In-Home Care Providers
-Home Health Care
-Adult Day-Care facilities
-Independent Living Communities (IL)
-Assisted Living Communities (AL)
-Dementia/Alzheimer’s Care
-Retirement Communities
-Rehabilitation Facilities

I will not even attempt to detail the specifics of each type, but will mention that the traditional approach has been that the family of the elderly person actually performs all of the caregiving. As we enjoy these longer lives, it is becoming more and more unrealistic to expect family caregivers to continue to provide all of the caregiving. With families being spread all over the country, with special medical care being needed, with special facilities being required, and with caregiving needed over much longer periods of time, families cannot cope with all of these issues.

Most families don’t do any real planning for the caregiving of their elderly until it is crisis time and something must be done quickly, or until the old approach of family members carrying the entire burden collapses because the work is overwhelming. And by then the primary family caregivers need their own special help. My goal is to raise the issue for you before the crisis comes.

If you have needs now or can see them on the horizon, I can provide contact information for true experts in this field who can help you determine a game plan for being prepared and moving ahead. Please either add a comment to this post or email me directly with any specific questions or needs, and I will get an expert to help with providing the best information.

Tom Binder