Everyone’s starting point to supporting their elderly parents will be different.
In this section we have covered all the stages of elderly care, providing top tips, signposting to the best advice and information, to help decision making easier and quicker.
Do you Speak Care?
Understanding the language of elderly care and care definitions – particularly when you’re in an emergency situation or struggling to cope can make the challenge even harder.
Elderly Care Services
The realisation that theirs and your world is changing may have been gradual. Or you may have been catapulted into it by a medical emergency. Either way, from your perspective it may seem worrying, incredibly sad or just plain scary.
Do you Parents Need Help?
It’s not always easy to know when your elderly parents need help, or to identify what help would make the most difference, and change their care or support accordingly.
Elderly Care at Home
Most people want to be able to stay in their own home as long as possible, but may need extra care at home to do so. Help for the elderly in their own home is something everyone needs to understand and arrange appropriate care and support for more challenging tasks around the home.
Residential Elderly Care
Deciding that a residential care home for your elderly parent is the only option is one of the hardest decisions to be made. In this section we try to make the process easier with a guide to choosing a care home, as well as expert advice and guidance on making life better once there.
Hospital
t’s useful to know about hospital procedures whether your parent arrives via A&E or as a planned admission. Everyone knows that the less time spent in hospital the better.
Respite Care
Respite care in a care home aims to give the carer a break from their caring role. This could be an occasional overnight during the week so the carer gets a good night’s sleep or for a longer period of time.
Care for Carers
If one of your parents cares for the other then there’s a good chance that they will not think of themselves as the carer at all – but of course as the husband or wife – probably of many years standing.
End of Life Planning & Care
In recent years there’s been growing recognition of the need for a special approach to caring for elderly people at the end of their lives.
