Do you believe old age homes and frail care homes are the only options for your parents? Think again!
The changing needs of our ageing parents often remain undetected until an accident or illness brings the stark reality of their progressive frailty to our attention. Too often, working couples in the city, or abroad, consider old age or frail care homes, retirement villages or hospitalisation.
However, most ageing citizens cherish their autonomy, or would prefer to stay on with their families.
So while both parents work in most urban households, the fact that there is nobody at home to take care of grannies and grandpas need not lead to solitary confinement.
A much kinder and more flexible option is home-based care, which can be inexpensive and discreet – as services are tailored to each family’s unique needs, and does not require a full-time nurse moving into your home. This ensures your parents’ comfort and independence, and offers the family valuable time with parents in the home.
Are your parents at the point in their lives where they need assistance in dressing, washing, obtaining and taking their medication, general chauffeuring or regular health monitoring?
As city-dwellers emerged in their mid-life careers don’t readily have the emotional and logical head space to deal with the new challenges presented by ageing parents in the best way, home-based care is a nationally emerging trend that bridges this gap.
At Tender Home-Based Care Placement Services, we place caregivers in the homes of the frail and elderly, or of their families. That extra hand not only takes care of your parents’ health and well-being, but also offers companionship with a firm support structure in place, while respecting the family’s busy schedules.
SAQA-accredited home-based caregivers are trained in first aid, healthy cooking, identifying precipitators to serious health events such as heart attacks, low or high blood pressure, strokes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and how to care for the disabled during the day or night.
Full day-care entails 8-9 hours during the week, with 12-hour night-time or 24-hour monitoring for serious illness or recuperation. The Night Angel service is often employed to observe elderly or frail clients during sleep, to prevent falling, assist with toiletry, washing and medicating.
Flexi-hour arrangements are available for visits to the doctor or hairdresser, so there really is an option for every family’s needs. Tender Home-based Care services clients in the CBD area of Johannesburg, from Rosebank and Parktown to Linden, Randburg and the West Rand.
Antonette Myers can be contacted on 082 574 6546 or via email at homebasecarer@gmail.com. — Mathilde Myburgh, journalist.
