What senior’s want.
We’re all getting older. When I cover a senior’s event I’m old enough to take part in some of them, which is sobering. Not only are we getting older, we’re living longer too. That’s nice. However, between living longer and living well there is a gulf of a difference, physical and mental conditions can make that living longer anywhere from challenging to intolerable. On the up side, those of us through a combination of fortune, genes and or/living healthy could hope to be active to our mid 80s and perhaps beyond.
In Alberta, according to Alberta Seniors and Housing, as of July 2017, there were 550,000 seniors living in our province. Projections are that by 2031, there will be 928,000 people over 65. By 2035 it’s expected that one in five people, one million souls, will be seniors. That’s not to say that all those people will be dependent on others for care. Quite the contrary, many will and do contribute to society through work, businesses and volunteering well past the date of official retirement. With age comes wisdom, so it is said.
Our aging population isn’t just our province, our nation even. For as long as I can remember going back to my grandparents on my father’s side the solution was a seniors’ care home, old age people’s home, retirement home, call it what you will. Some seniors openly embrace the concept, other’s reluctantly but based on pragmatism that they can no longer cope are forced to make the decision, some have dementia conditions and have no choice at all. Most, if not all, would prefer to see out their days in their own home.
My mother was fiercely independent but had to go into a home after a cancer operation meant she could not look after herself any more, neither would a home care package have been adequate either. My mother fought tooth and nail not to go. When she was in a home she saved up her allowance and escaped, paying for a taxi to take her nearly a hundred miles home. She almost made it. The taxi was contacted and returned her from just 20 miles short of her destination. The home was clean, the staff for the most part good, she had her own room and bathroom, yet my mother hated it like a prison. She wasn’t the only one. When her escape bid failed she tried another tack. This one worked. She willed herself to death. My mother refused all food. She was too frail from the operation to force feed and the doctors and medical staff made things as comfortable for her as they could.
From my own perspective. That day of going into some sort of care is, not too close, but closer than I would like. I’ll be honest here. I will do everything that I possibly can to avoid leaving my home, wherever, or whatever it may be.
We have a rudimentary home care system. Ageing in place, takes thought, planning and cooperation for caregivers be they employees of health authorities/agencies or family.
Caregiving is tough and often a 24 seven job with no time off. I think we need to look a lot more at people staying in their own hones, especially in rural areas. Professional caregiving needs to be elevated to a profession, paid well, trained well and highly motivated. Beyond the caregiving, a network of maintenance and cleaning professionals, be they certified businesses on call or direct municipal employees. Beyond that again, financial help and support, including training for families that want to be carers themselves. These carers need respite back up too to prevent burn out.
These items on my wish list, and there will be more, the deeper one delves, will cost money. However, how much money could be saved on blocked hospital beds, preventable treatments and issuing of medications? How much value and good jobs could we generate? Imagine.