By Marjorie A. Gordon-DeLee, MA (December 14, 2018)
Caring for the Senior Citizens by implementing more programs for this growth in population over the next 50 or so years.
We must look at both ends of the spectrum here in taking care of the children and taking care of the Senior Citizens as well. That is to say, we must look to take care of, mold and shape the innocent minds of the children with morals and values whilst taking care of the children’s health, providing food, shelter, and adequately educating them until they reach the age of independence. At that time, most will have the capacity to take care of themselves.
On the other end of the spectrum, we must take care of our Senior Citizens (the Baby Boomer, the Elderly). We have given so much in shaping the lives of many people in this world to include our children, dedicated our lives to working hard with great work ethics to make it possible for the youth of today to live the quality of life in which they are now living. Therefore, our Senior Citizens must be given the utmost care, compassion, respect, and kindness as possible in their latter days. Their dignity should never be decreased and society should help the Senior Citizens to maintain a level of independence which contributes to these Senior Citizens maintaining their self-respect at all times. Remember, every human being who lives a long life will one day become an elder themselves. Keep that in mind. Not only treat Senior Citizens with respect because it is the right thing to do, but also treat the Senior Citizen as you would want to be treated when you begin to fill similar shoes. We cannot say enough about the care, kindness, concern, and respect shown to Senior Citizens.
Additionally, there is the care of the Senior Citizens when their health begins to deteriorate or fail them. Who’s going to be there to take care of them at that time. If the Senior Citizen is married, there is always the partner to consider. Bragg and Hansen exclaimed in their article that:
Unpaid family workers come at a cost. Time away from work means lost wages and Social Security contributions and lost retirement. While an older family member may need support for an average of three years (Rousseau, Firth, and Jankiewicz, 2013), there are few programs that provide long-term help for family care partners. At the federal level, the Family Medical Leave Act provides twelve weeks of unpaid leave, not the three years generally needed (Schuster, 2014 cited in Bragg and Hansen, n.d.).
Many of the Senior Citizen children have full time employment and will not be able to take off the time to take care of an ailing parent. Or, that adult child may not want to be bothered in taking care of that ailing parent. Where does that leave the Senior Citizen who is in need of care due to poor health?
There is the option of a nursing facility for that Senior Citizen to go into. But the majority of Senior Citizens prefer to remain independent and live in their own homes until their end of life comes. Bragg and Hansen provide the statement below:
Most older adults plan to remain in their own homes until death (National Conference of State Legislatures and AARP Public Policy Institute, 2011). For those of us who are or who have been caregivers, we have wondered who will be there to help us. Can we afford to pay for help? Many people still are surprised that Medicare does not pay for many services we might need to help us stay in our home. On average, annual home health aide services (at $20 per hour, twenty hours per week) cost almost $21,000, and adult daycare (at $70 per day, five days per week)
Further review of the literature also suggested that a robot could possibly be an option if the Senior Citizen is single, childless, or just have one child who lives in another state and has a full-time job. We might just consider a robot caregiver or some other emerging smart technology. Granted, these are all things that we must start to consider right now to begin changing some laws, implementing new programs, building more affordable housing for our Senior Citizens that is appealing to live in. Our dignity must be considered at all times as well in the places that are available for us Senior Citizens to live in.
References:
Bragg, E. J. and Hansen, C. (n.d.). Ensuring Care for Aging Baby Boomers: Solutions at Hand. Retrieved December 14, 2018 from https://www.asaging.org/blog/ensuring-care-aging-baby-boomers-solutions-hand
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