Ramping up Elder Care – November 2023

My sisters and I realized earlier this month that we need to ramp up the support provided to my parents and the needs were quickly going to exceed what the 4 of us could provide. We had tweaked the situation over the past few years in significant ways: they no long drove themselves, their doctor/labs were mostly done in their home, one of us was with them every day providing at least one meal and their refrigerator/pantry was kept well stocked, there was always a pile of jigsaw puzzles, my dad carried a smartphone on his rambling walks so we could locate him (fortunately he never got lost), they both wore fall necklaces, and we set up a voice activated system for reminders/calls for help. They might not need someone with them 24/7…but we are seeing that it might not be that long before they do.

And so – a new adventure begins…

Our first action was to contact their doctor for a virtual meeting about ‘improving support to our parents.’ The doctor also brought a social worker to the meeting. We documented our observations…why we thought more was needed. It was a very productive meeting with some things we could do immediately (like adding some cameras to the home) and a list of services available in the community.

We started with the idea that we wanted to keep them in their own home with support from private care providers to supplement what we do but quickly realized that we should explore assisted living (particularly small, home-like facilities) as well.

Stay tuned for what we learn over the next month!