Sending your parents to a care home

[canadiandesigirl]

Re: Sending your parents to a care home

@Tklucky8

Although, I am old school and would never even think of sending my parents off. But you brought up a very good point. Yes we hope our parents are healthy in old age but reality is not always like that. I work with elderly patients everyday; patients who are paralyzed, incontinent or worst suffering from Alzheimer. In those cases I cant even imagine what it is like for families to take care of them without any assistance. Its not only about the family but also the elderly patient that needs professional care. On the other hand, yes we have caretakers and such you can hire to care for them at home ; however, families do need some sort of assistance. Its a sad reality.

Requiring assistance and sending them off to a long term care home or retirement home are two very different things. I absolutely agree that we are not equipped with the knowledge to care for elderly who are frail and may have many chronic conditions. I would forgo my own luxuries and keep my parents home with hired help if needed BUT I will not put them in a LTC home. I have been to these places and honestly they are very sad places. I was at an alzheimer unit of a LTC home where an lady came up to me and started talking to me - I didn’t understand what she was saying because it wasn’t English but I could tell all she wanted to do was talk and feel wanted. Wouldn’t you want your loved ones around you and feel loved and cared for when you are sick and perhaps dying?