Senior Living Solutions

“Your Sweet Home” – is it for you when you are old??

Living arrangement when old is still an uncertainty for many. As age advances and when you need assistance or help for activities of daily living, the place where you actually going to age and live the rest of life is a mystery. In many situations especially in urban areas and cities, older persons manage to stay alone as long as possible independently. Later, it is the time for children or the so called responsible relatives to take away their autonomy and execute their decision on where they will stay next. It can be an oldage home, another relative’s house or one of the children. Whatever it may be, they are going to stay in a totally new environment where they may not have any roots. Adding to the losses that comes along with ageing, independency and dignity needs to be given up; similarly, their life long emotional and sentimental investments needs to be sacrificed including their most cherished sweet homes.

In our culture, the biggest investment for a family or person during his productive age apart from an own house are their children. They have invested a major part of their financial, physical and emotional resources on children with the expectation that they will be along with and take care of their parents. It is true according to the statistics that still majority of older persons stay with their children and they are the sole care- providers. But as traditional joint families break down giving rise to nuclear families and increased migration of younger generation in search for a better job, older parents are often left alone at home. The most cherished sweet home starts haunting them along with the ‘empty-nest’ feeling. Taking the example of an older couple staying in the city, Mrs and Mr. Madhavan Nair, both were working in government service – long 30 years of service and now 18 years of retired life. Madhavan Nair was 35 when he started planning for an own house. It was a dream for the small family. With great difficulty and tremendous planning, an independent 2 bedroom house was completed. As children grew, Mr. Nair renovated his house expanding the space to a 4 bed room house where one room each were earmarked for children. But all his plans were shattered as his elder son opted to work in the United States after completing his Masters in Computer engineering. Parents initially were proud to announce the achievement of their son to obtain a high position. Later, his second son decided to stay with them working in a school as a teacher. However, soon after his marriage, adjustment problems of the new member with the family left no option for him but to move out of his parental house to build his own nuclear family. Again Mrs. and Mr. Nair consoled themselves that it was the best decision to save a family from breaking. Today, this old couple is alone to take care and support each other – uncertainties still remain about their future whether the most cherished own home where all fond memories lie will go with the wind. There is no much difference with many other older persons in the present society.

Oldage homes are an option for such elderly where at least a caregiver is assured and basic needs are met. Stigma attached to oldage homes and retirement centers are barriers for many. However, for those who wish to spend their retired life with people with common interests, a retirement home is the best solution. There are a variety of oldage homes ranging from the ones meant for destitute run by charitable organizations to the ones with 5 star facilities. A retirement community is an emerging concept in India where senior housing is provided with all care facilities. In a continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), residents can continue living in the same environment in all phases of ageing whether independent, needing assistance or fully dependent. This continuum of care is made available in such CCRCs on payment basis.

A new concept is been proposed as solution for senior living taking into account the merits and demerits of oldage homes and retirement communities – a ‘Lifecare Enabled Community’ (LEC). LEC is a normal community not intended only for older persons unlike a retirement community or oldage home. This is a normal mix of generations as any flat / villa complex or a residential layout. When present day’s flats and villas provide services such as swimming pool, health club, children’s park, drivers lobby, guest rooms etc, an additional unique service of ‘Senior Care’ is added in a LEC. As the population of older persons is rising and number of care givers for such elders is decreasing, this is an emerging need and demand of the society. Ageing in place is a fortune that is rarely experienced with dignity by older persons. Even though the younger generation wishes to take care of their elders, circumstances forbid them from giving their best. It is the duty of the policy makers and planners to create services and infrastructure that enables seniors to continue living in familiar environment for life. Services should also be targeted to encourage children or family to take care their elderly to preserve the great Indian tradition. As mentioned earlier, children and family are still the main care givers for elderly in India. Government may not be able to create such huge infrastructure or take the responsibility to take care of this huge population who are dependent. Further, the cost of hiring a formal caregiver is also high. If “Senior Care” is enabled in normal communities, it would help the elderly living in that community and also foster the losing tradition of ‘Family or children will look after their elderly family member’.

Bottom line is that, service providers should enter with such services in the community. Government should promote such services that would enable the younger generation to take care of their elderly and help older persons to age in place with dignity, safety and security.  More important is that, while planning new residential layouts or flat/villa projects, builders or Government can include this new service that is “Senior Lifecare” thereby creating a “Lifecare Enabled Community”.