Eldercare at Home

Administrator — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:33:10 +0000

The Services At Home Independent Living Offer can be considered “Eldercare”, a term which is becoming familiar to more and more Americans as the population grows increasingly older.

The number of people sixty-five and older totaled 29.1 million in 1985, and grew to reach 36.5 million in the year 2000, and will be an astonishing 54.5 million by 2020. Of that 54.5 million, 7.3 million will be over eighty-five years old.

The market for eldercare services is often not the elderly themselves, but the caretakers, generally the sons and daughters of the elderly. They are the “sandwich generation”, so called because they are caring for two sets of dependents, their parents, and their children. (The average span of childcare is seventeen years, while the average span of parentcare is eighteen years, and for the first time in history the average married couple has more living parents than children.)

Until now, there have not been many care options open to these caretakers. An elderly person who was not safe alone and needed care could be visited on a daily basis, moved in to a son’s or daughter’s home, or moved to a nursing home.

The first two options are extremely stressful to both the parent and the caretaker. Both require a total change in lifestyle for the caretaker and the second requires a total change in lifestyle for the elderly person as well. The third option is the most upsetting for the elderly and the caretakers – nursing home care frequently means overwhelming guilt for the caretaker and total loss of independence for the elderly person.

At Home offers an exciting fourth option. We offer both “Live-In” and “Sitter” Companion services to the frail elderly. Now, relatively healthy, independent elderly people who live alone can remain in their homes and maintain their accustomed lifestyles. Support at home is not only more cost-effective, it is also more dignified and more rewarding.

Our careful screening and thorough training assures the client and the concerned caretaker that someone capable, interested, and caring is there when they can’t be.

This service has proved invaluable to caretakers, freeing them of stress and guilt, and even helping them to improve the quality of life for the elderly people they care so much about.