If you are a working person and have retired parents, it is your responsibility to take care of their basic needs. You just need to be proactive in your efforts. Remember, decisions that are taken under crisis circumstances are likely to be expensive, bad, or even both! You need to have a action plan to take care of your aging parents.

Preparing in advance

You should not wait until your parents get sick and need help with their basic needs. The right time to provide them with assisted living will be much before the time they are unable to take their own decisions. Invite your family members including siblings and parents to decide how best to take care of your aging parents. Distance should not be an excuse for you or others for not being able to contribute towards elderly care.

Facilitator

Any family member can be made the facilitator to help carry out the scheduled elderly care solution meeting. It assists in proper communication. The role can also be taken by your elderly parents. You may even consider an external facilitator in case your family fails to be on the same page. Do consider your parent’s basic medical and non-medical, long-term needs including senior care services.

Identify needs

Prepare a list of all the things that is desired to assist your parents to lead a healthy and full retirement life. To ease the entire process, divide caring-related tasks into time periods. Identify what type of assistance they will require on a daily basis. It includes preparing meals, housework, shaving, etc. Also find out the weekly tasks to be undertaken like grocery shopping, bank deposits, bill payments, etc.

Ask for assistance

After determining the steps to be undertaken to provide the utmost care, figure out the person who will be responsible for it. You may consider residential home care services for the same. Although you might hire professional caregiver services to offer 24/7 care, it is essential for each family member to give some time and effort.  Besides the professional caregiver, find out what each member can contribute. It includes trimming hedges, mowing the lawn, doing household chores, grocery, etc.

Realistic goals

You need to be quite realistic in whatever expectations you have from yourself as well as other family members. Try to make the most of your family members’ expertise when providing care to your parents. If you are a single child, then you may consider moving your aging parent to good home care. Here, all their needs will be taken proper care of. This is the action plan to take care of your aging parents.