“ My single mum is reaching her 70’s now and I am obsessed to take care of her as she is aging, quite too fast for me. I’m her only hope being a single child. I want to give her the best care in her old age.
What kind of financial aiding can I avail under elderly care programs?
With the advent of the Covid-19 as a pandemic, I am also eager to learn what all private healthcare at home services should I invest in?
I don’t want the outbreak to make any negative impact on my mother’s health.”
Are you among one of those children with similar thoughts to give your parents the ultimate care during their old age?
Or
Are you independently leading your old age or along with your partner?
Don’t worry, whatever be the case, you (or your parents), as a senior citizen, too deserve a comfortable, stress-free old age after having survived so many struggles throughout your life.
So, taking into focus the present harsh adversities due to Coronavirus outbreak, the discussion shall recommend you with the best financial aids so as to give effective elderly care.
Table Of Contents
❏ Introduction
Analyzing the surveys
- According to the various US Surveys recorded, old age is said to dominate the younger population by the year 2035.
- The survey depicts that the current senior population rounds up to 75 million which will take a leap to 72 million by 2035 and upto 85 million by the year 2050.
- The credit for life longevity among people in the US, goes to the highly advanced technologies and healthcare services which uplifts the overall health graph.
However, old age is not an easy state of mind to cope with, both physically as well as mentally.
In addition to all above, the Covid-19 has brought up so many challenges for the elderly people, to face and survive their dreams and ambitions.
Thus, taking care of the senior citizens urges to look at both aspects: financial assistance for elderly as well their physical and emotional well being.
It’s a long list of challenges that everyone is facing during the uninvited Covid-19 pandemic, isn’t it?
Especially, keeping into focus the senior citizens, these are some of the major setbacks that have led to massive troubles to old age people:
1. Compromising Healthy Diet Routines:
The uncertainty in staying-at-home orders is causing extreme difficulty to avail proper nutritional facilities as a part of the elderly care routines.
The inconsistent lockdown and unlock which are imposed and expanded at irregular intervals, avoid the elderly people to purchase items such as vegetables, fruits, juices, etc for fulfilling their nutrition.
Why Proper Nutrition? As the aging factor induces itself, there is an urge for the elders to intake more nutritional diet for physical strength. To keep a strong immunity to acute infections or chronic disease, it is very important to take a proper and regular diet especially during the ages above 60.
Thus one of the major challenges to the elders during the pandemic is lack of proper nutrition and diet.
2. Lack of Financial Assistance:
The elders find it cumbersome to manage their finances as a whole. It is really difficult for them to cope up with the financial budgets, expenses on a daily/ monthly/ yearly basis. This proves to be a more burden to the independent old age people.
Thus, financial assistance is an important issue of concern to take into account. The financial assistance should be made easily manageable for the senior citizens to make them live stress-free.
3. Difficulty coping with Medical treatments and bills:
The regular medical checkups and treatments along with their bills is a task of immense responsibility. For timely payments of bills and taking the old people to their respective health-care centres is what requires proper means of financial as well as transportation facilities.
Also, during the pandemic, the verification of the medical documents is strict due to the added medical issues as the Coronavirus. This all is too much of a load for the elders to handle themselves or even for their guardians living with them.
4. Inappropriate Comfort and Luxury Facilities:
As an independent survivor in old age especially, it is very difficult to manage with the tasks involving travel. The daily routine such as purchasing groceries, bank related tasks, etc. proves to affect personal well being of elders in two major ways:
- Travelling out from home on the roads everywhere uses up the entire energy of aged persons making them feel exhausted and destroying their health.
- Moreover, going out for any reason risks their health by bringing the older people in social contact with others, which is risky during such an outbreak.
So, another major threat posing to senior citizens is disturbing their comfort, luxury and personal health.
5. Lacking Emotional Support:
According to the recent surveys, 6-8% of old age people suffer from extreme mental distress. Be it financial stress, emotional stress, no matter what may be the reason, the elders need to cope up with their emotional mood swings very badly apart from physical changes in the body.
Being emotionally weak at a severe Corona outbreak is much more difficult to deal with!!
6. Lack of emergency services:
The Health Care Units such as the hospitals are lagging behind from providing any such sort of emergency visits or meet-ups to the registered patients.
More than 40% of the patients are the senior citizens. Despite this, they are unable to access required aid currently. The reason being entirely the focus laid on the Corona patients, leaving barely any space for the regular patients in hospital.
Thus, in case of any emergency it poses a risk and stress to old age people while dealing with their issues themselves .
❏ What are the most prominent ways to let elderly people overcome the challenges during the Covid-19?
Now, being aware of what struggles the senior citizens have to cope up with during the Covid-19, it’s high time to explore the best opportunities and benefits that the elderly people can avail sitting at their comfort zones.
The old age citizens require help in every possible manner, in their personal health assistance, financially in medical bills and other day-to-day expenses, helping them through their household routines and so on.
Here are some of the many ways which could relieve the stress of elders and make them live a happy and healthy life.
1. Aiding through Medical bill payments:
The Federal Government as well as some of the private health care units are really working hard to give the senior citizens the facilities to pay their medical bills for medicines, surgeries and timely check-ups as well.
This not only helps the elders feel financially relaxed but also feel being cared for and emotionally stable. The medical aids in bill payments is usually a form of loan sanctioned to meet the special health and safety of old age citizens.
2. Easy (Online/Offline) Grocery Procurement at homes:
To travel out in the extreme or critical weather as in the pandemic, a special caution needs to be taken for the elderly.
So, everything in or out of groceries including fruits, vegetables, etc is made available to the homes of aged people either through the private or governmental agencies.
The groceries along with other essentials are made available to the elders whether from their nearby grocery stores or even can be ordered online.
3. Medical Luxuries and assistance at home:
Most of the old age individuals face difficulty in getting out of their comfort zones even for medical checkups or medicines. The elders might require an all-time assistance even in some cases, to help with their day-to-day routines like bathing, cooking, cleaning etc.
So for the above stated purpose also, there are many private and governmental at-home health care assistance through the specialised teams to take care of elders all day and night.
4. Help with Budget and expenses maintenance:
At an outburst of a crisis, the youth and adult generation is finding it really hard to cope with the unstable budgets and expenses to bring into stability. What could be worse for an independently living aged couple/individual than to maintain his/her own budgets and expenses despite having bad health.
Thus, the Government and private corporations are united to maintain the budgets and expenses on behalf of elders or help them in case they need it.
5. Love and Care: Tools for Emotional Support:
The prior help to the elders in the serious Covid-19 situations is to fix them emotionally and assure them that they are not alone. They need proper guidance with love, respect and support in case of health or any other financial issues.
Emotional Support is something which gives the elders the hope to live their life happily and completely healthy.
For keeping an emotional balance during their old age and that too during the uncertain crisis, there are many personal psychologists and edlerly care teams to help the elders emotionally 24*7 at the comfort of their home.
❏ Conclusion
- As a conclusion it is important to realise that the elders need extra care and nourishment either from their loved ones living with them or the consistent persona they meet on a daily basis.
- Apart from just giving away the financial aid, it would be really a great deal if they are given an enthusiastic environment around themselves.
- Giving them a chance to participate in laughing exercises, regular fitness camps, health check-ups are some of the complimentary aids that would give them a ray of hope to live their life grateful and happy even during the Covid crisis.
