essay on care for the elderly
Life is often about being taken care of in childhood, or being a caretaker for others. The lessons are sometimes about nurturing, love and compassion. Be sure the senior you are helping gets the best care available and understands their changing needs.
No one wants to live with, and take care of an old person who is ill and generally difficult deal with due to physical and emotional problems, that often require more care than they can provide. It is hard to see someone you love slip away. With the aid of a good home care provider, the burden is eased, yet some of these people leave a lot to be desired.
Not everyone is a caretaker. Some can care take children, but not the people with special needs and illnesses, at any age. Others have no problem caring for an older person with whom they feel a soul connection.
For some the journey is about taking care of others, family, friends, at work, eventually causing them to burn out and wonder, "Who is going to take care of me when I get old." Many never leave home, and wonder when their life will begin, not realizing they are here to act as parental caretakers.
As we known most people live longer and healthier lives as compared to the past generations. Each year advancements in science and technology, better health care combining western medicine with holistic healing, greater awareness of how to care for ourselves physically and emotionally, are all part of the process that increases the life expectancy of humans. The Internet is an important tool to that end.
Sometimes senior citizens are able to live normal lives and care for themselves, but as most people age, they need care takers at some point.
Lack of a caretaker is a serious problem for older people who have chronic conditions and limitations on their ability to care for themselves and their homes. Their problems are often compounded by increased medical costs due to poor health and the need for more supportive services.
Unfortunately, those who are most vulnerable are also most likely to live alone and to have limited incomes. Eighty percent of those living alone are women and nearly half of people aged 85 or older live alone. Older women, the very old, and minority elderly, have, on average, the lowest incomes among the older population which severely limits their ability to purchase the health care, goods, services, and housing options which could help them to remain independent. There are agencies that supply aid to these people.
The Caretakers
Taking care of the elderly is not easy. Emotional issues, buried for decades come to the fore and are tested. Money, inheritance, is often a generating factor in the relationship. In most cases there is a love behind the pain, which may never be shown, or may be spoke about before the person crosses over. Learning to say, "I love you" or "Forgive me", is very important to the souls involved.
Many people force themselves to be care takers, relieved when the experience is over, but knowing it is why they are here, or, that there is just no one else to do it.
Care taking the elderly is difficult and depressing much of the time. Watching someone die is not easy, especially if you love them. We all have our limitations.
Sometimes care taking a senior means living in their home, which is paid for, combined with the benefits, allow the care taker to remove themselves from the pressure and responsibilities of the work place. When the person crosses over, and the money is gone, or given away to the government, all sorts of new issues must be dealt with by the care taker, finances, or feeling others have taken money that should have been theirs after years of care taking.
Many care takers have not created a family of their own, so life becomes meaningless. Many are lost and alone never finding themselves as they wander through life. They may have jobs, friends, and an interest or two, but they are lost once the karma is over. They wonder why they are here. Often they turn to metaphysical studies to help bring deeper meaning to their lives. Things become boring and they get depressed. Many 'leave' early to rejoin the person who died.
One client I read came to me when his mother was dying. He was forty years old. She died a month later. He died of a heart attack one week after she died. Souls do travel in groups, and often feel abandoned when there are no other members of their soul group here.
Care taking an aging parent, while trying to handle your other responsibilities is often as difficult as the parent who raises the child alone and struggles to provide proper care and attention. Life moves in these cycles, through time.
When does the body age? The body starts to break down physically, when the emotional and spiritual bodies breakdown, and the soul starts to release from the physical grid. The connection looks like static electricity on the grid, the electromagnetic flow, our aura, inhibited. It's like being plugged into the grid, but there is a short in the wiring.
This does not necessarily have to occur when someone is old. It occurs when people do not function and need care takers. Some people are challenged from birth and require special care taking all of their experience in the physical. The soul determines how the physical body will perform and how needy it will be, and the type of physical experience the soul will have in that body.
