Elder Resource and Awareness Hub
This part of our website is dedicated to the sharing of knowledge about Elder Care, both for the Elder and the Caretaker. We are in the process of building our website to accommodate the myriads of questions pertaining to Elder care.
Our Health care systems can be tricky and evasive. Our family networks are increasingly challenged by the fast pace of our times and the socially inhibiting aspects of technology. We need a source of charity and kindness to help link us together and keep our systems working effectively. We hope that this resource hub will help you grow your Elder strong and nurture the caretakers in command.
James was living independently in the house he designed, built, and lived in for over forty years when his life changed dramatically. It was not his broken hip and the eight months of recovery that forced him to find another home. Nearly a year after returning to his home fully recovered from his broken hip, he had an unprecedented flare up of a condition called polymyalgia rheumatica (meaning “pain in many muscles” in Greek). At the end of this recovery his doctors told him he may not safely return to his prior independent living situation at home.
Our situation was multifaceted and much layered with circumstances of which we had no prior experience — or even awareness thereof. We were faced with many choices to make, most of which were decisions based on decisions based on more decisions. The obvious elements included Medicare, secondary insurance, Connpace and Silverscript prescription cards, heat assistance, legal property rights and assets, and the low-down on all the local facilities that would serve as options for our Grandfather.
We were suddenly immersed in a long run of decision making that demanded a complete and full understanding of nearly every aspect of his medical, legal, physical, emotional and social care, not to mention we were dealing with a very independent and strong willed character amidst a challenging family dynamic.
And to boot, at this particular point in the process, we were already experiencing a great deal of caretaker’s fatigue and had little energy left to do the researching needed to provide a solid decision making foundation.
The road we had to travel to get James into a facility that would become the home he was leaving was often treacherous and intimidating. There were very few road signs and rest stops on this journey. Faith and luck and pure determination played and enormous part in the success of his placement and future.
His recent accomplishment of conquering illiteracy and penning his autobiography speaks directly to the success we had in making the best choices we could under our circumstances. We had a lot of help along the way and for that we are ever grateful.
Looking back, the most debilitating aspect of our journey was the fact that there was no one Elder Resource Center offering information to prevent poor and often devastating results! There was an enormous amount of leg work involved in finding answers to what seemed like easy questions.
It would have saved us a lot of time and sanity had we known of a resource center that could have avoided all that work and angst. Keep in mind that your Elder in transition is undergoing their own process of acceptance and denial of their situation, as well as a very poignant question about their mortality. There is far more than meets the eye when these situations arise unexpectedly. We are living longer. The increase in our Elder population demands more service, more product, more knowledge, which we presently have to effectively meet the needs of both our Elders and their Caretakers.
