Senior Care

From a user of Cocoon – Adaptive clothing for seniors

Adaptive clothing for seniorsI am a Family Caregiver living in Abhiramapuram and my mother and I take care of my elderly grandmother. My grandmother has some challenges with mobility and with moving her right arm as she is a stroke survivor, but she manages quite well and is very lively.

This Diwali, as per the custom each year, we wanted to make sure that my grandmother had a new dress to wear to celebrate the day. She usually wears nightdresses along with a towel or dupatta around her neck. We had purchased a beautifully designed nightdress from the Cocoon collection at the Old is Gold Store before Diwali, and knew we wanted to get her a new one from the same collection.

We love this line of clothing for her because the shoulder buttons and roomy size of the dress make it easy for her to put on because she does not need to lift both hands or struggle to have it fit over her healthy frame. Adaptive clothing for seniorsThe length of the dress is also slightly shorter, so we don’t have to worry about her tripping over it when we are helping her to move from the bed to her chair. Previously we had to hem all nightgowns, but this one seems to really be made with our needs in mind. Sometimes during Diwali we reminisce on how she used to wear beautiful saris and feel a bit sad that we cannot buy her one to wear. But, from our previous experience with a Cocoon nightgown, we know it looks and feels like a high quality garment, so it made us feel like we are giving her something nice in lieu of a sari like the old days.

I was happy to get her one in a bold color for Diwali, because I knew it would be an item we could purchase and use right away, without alteration, and she would be comfortable both putting it on and wearing it. Indeed she was delighted to wear her new dress that day and we had a wonderful celebration.
A nightdress seems like a simple thing to write about, but to us these dresses it allows us to add some variety, convenience and comfort to our lovely grandmother’s life.

 

15 million elderly Indians live all alone: Census

15 million elderly Indians live all alone: CensusAlmost 15 million elderly Indians live all alone and close to three-fourths of them are women. In some states like Tamil Nadu the proportion of such ‘single elders’ is even higher with one in eleven of those aged above 60 living alone. One in every seven elderly persons in India lives in a household where there is nobody below the age of 60. In states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, a quarter of the elderly population lives in such all-elderly households.

This was revealed in Census 2011 data on the number of elderly people (above 60 years) and household size released this week. Of the nearly 250 million households in India, 31.3% have at least one elderly person. If we take away those elderly living alone or in elderly-only households from this number, just over 27% of households or 68 million households have elderly living with younger members. In almost 70% of households there is nobody above the age of 60.

To read the original article in the Times of India, go here. (  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/15-million-elderly-Indians-live-all-alone-Census/articleshow/43948392.cms )

India ranked 69th by Global AgeWatch

Age WatchThe Global AgeWatch Index 2014 has ranked India a lowly 69th among 96 countries it has ranked on how friendly the countries are for senior citizens.

It performs best in the enabling environment domain (52), a significant increase from its 2013 ranking (72) due to an increase in sense of civic freedom (77%) and satisfaction with public transport (69%).

It performs moderately in the capability domain (55), with near the regional average values for employment (55.8%), but low values for educational attainment among older people (20.3%).

It ranks low in the income security domain (71), with poor pension income coverage (28.9%). However, it has low old age poverty (5.1%) and high relative welfare for its region. It ranks lowest in the health domain (87), with below regional average values on all health indicators.

Life expectancy at the Age of 60 in India is estimated to be 17 years, while the estimated number of healthy years is on about 12.6.   Only about 28% of those above the age of 65 receive any pension and the rest are dependent on their own savings or their children.

The most worrisome finding is that the country does not seem to have any clear National policy on ageing.  Unless concrete steps are taken in defining a national level policy on ageing, it is going to be very difficult to see any great improvement in India’s ranking in the future.  With the pressure of increasing population in this segment, things can easily go downhill very quickly.

The top 10 countries to grow old is are:

  1. Norway
  2. Sweden
  3. Switzerland
  4. Canada
  5. Germany
  6. Netherlands
  7. Iceland
  8. USA
  9. Japan
  10. New Zealand

For a more detailed anaysis, go here.

(https://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/country-ageing-data/?country=India )

Finding new requirements

new requirementsEarlier today, we addressed a ladies club at a defence colony in Chennai. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold, one to tell them about the products we have and the other to get suggestions of products they may want us to deal with.

A very knowledgeable and well-traveled bunch of energetic ladies, we hoped they will tell us about the various products they had seen in their extensive travels around the globe.

Surprisingly, the product that most of them wanted (but we dont have), was a spectacle finder, because all of them confessed to misplacing their specs’ and ending up spending a lot of time looking for them.

We hope we will be able to procure such a product soon.

Special Security Cell for Senior Citizen in Odisha

Special Security Cell SAMBALPUR: In a bid to provide safety to elderly citizens, who are becoming easy target of criminals, SP Prateek Mohanty launched a Senior Citizen Security Cell here on Tuesday.

The cell was launched in Khetrajpur police station and will be shortly introduced in Town, Dhanupali and Ainthapali police stations. Dedicated staff will operate the cell and will be in touch with elderly citizens regularly. The SP said persons above the age of 60 are required to register themselves with the respective police stations. They will be asked to provide complete details including age, address, details of family members, contact numbers, name and addresses of their domestic helps.

You can read the whole article here.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2014/aug/20/Special-Security-Cell-for-Senior-Citizen-in-Odisha-650003.html )

Legal support for Seniors – Free from Dignity Foundation

Dignity Foundation ChennaiDignity Foundation Chennai Chapter is launching their “Legal Clinic” at Dignity Foundation Office on August 13th.

The idea behind “Legal Clinic” is to offer senior citizens trusted information and advice on legal issues and clear doubts that they might have. The Helpline Team at Dignity will first hear the case and depending on the issue will fix an appointment with the concerned lawyer who will meet the person and offer legal advice and the course of action to be taken at our office.This service is free. Our Helpline Team will then follow up with the senior on any procedures and help in resolving the issue. So the senior can rest assured that Dignity Helpline will be with them throughout and that they are in safe hands.

The lawyers in the panel include

Mr.Raza Narayanan

Mr.Lakshmikanthan

Mr.Kandaswamy and

Mr.Sunderajan

Please do let your friends and family know so that this information reaches out to more people.

Homes for seniors through Public-Private-Partnerships

Interesting news in the Times of India today.  

Homes for seniors Delhi Development Authority has drafted a proposal to create the biggest housing project for the elderly built with government participation in the country. Spread over 24 acres in Rohini, the plan is to construct around 4,500 one-room flats for the elderly on rental basis with common kitchens, canteens, medical and recreational facilities.

The project — Senior Citizen Service Apartment — will be developed through public private partnership. DDA will be equity partner by way of contribution of its land and DDA’s partner, the private developer, will construct the apartment, gymnasium, library, walking track, medical room and other facilities.

To read more about this, go here. (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-Development-Authority-plans-to-build-4500-flats-for-the-elderly/articleshow/37802263.cms )

In the twilight of their lives, healthy food is a call away

home delivered food In the times of India today, there is a nice article on home delivered food for the elderly.  An excerpt from the article is given below.  Follow the link at the end to read the entire article.

“One person asked me why I didn’t provide food for older people,” Kripa says. “That made me feel guilty.” She now delivers lunch to suit the palates of seniors. “We now have clients aged between 60 and 85,” she says.

In a city with a large population of the grey and greying, many of whom don’t live with their children, demand is on the rise for home-cooked food. With children leaving the nest, many elderly people have to fend for themselves – and advancing age and poor health have made cooking too difficult for them.

“My wife and I are in our 80s and our children live in the US. We can’t do the cooking,” says 87-year-old Mylapore resident R Rangarajan. They now use the services of a caterer, who sends them south Indian meals of rice, poriyal, rasam, sambar and buttermilk at 11am every day.

You can read the entire article here.

(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/In-the-twilight-of-their-lives-healthy-food-is-a-call-away/articleshow/36314875.cms)

We also have a list of such providers on our site here.  Please call us if you would like to add a few more food providers to the list.

Getting groceries, vegetables and food delivered home

 Getting groceries, vegetables and food delivered homeOne of the few reasons why living in India is better than living in some developed country, especially for senior citizens, is the option we have to order stuff that we need over the phone and getting it delivered within hours or even minutes to our doorstep.

Most medical shops home deliver medicines around their shop. The vegetable vendor comes around once or twice daily with a cart full of vegetables. Every Kirana shop has a phone and a simple call and you have all the groceries you need in no time – there is usually not even a minimum order quantity!

It is important for every senior citizen to have a list of phone numbers of all shops and pharmacies around their house so that they can get what they need without having to go out unnecessarily (unless they want to, of course).

In addition, there are a lot of online stores coming that that deliver all the necessities to your doorstep. They may not provide the same personalized experience, but nevertheless help you get what you need. Here are some of the online stores that you can use:

Groceries and vegetables

chennai-online
Name: Chennai Online Grocery
Site: http://www.chennaionlinegrocery.com
Delivery area:  Chennai and surrounding areas.
go-crazee
Name:GoCrazee.com
Site:  http://www.gocrazee.com
Delivery area: Across south India.
big-basket
Name:  Big Basket
Site: http://www.bigbasket.com
Delivery area:  Bangalore and suburbs
my-grahak
Name:  My Grahak
Site:http://www.mygrahak.com
Delivery area:  Delhi – NCR
my-easy-life
Name: My Eazy Life
Site:    http://www.MyEazyLife.com
Delivery area:  Delhi
veggi-bazaar
Name:  Veggi Bazaar
Site:  http://www.veggibazaar.com
Delivery area: Chennai

Food Delivery
It is good to have a list of restaurants near by that deliver food home, for those days when you don’t want to cook or would like to have something different.  A new crop of sites provide you the ability to order from even multiple restaurants if you so wish.

Here are a list of sites that let you get food from restaurants around your city delivered home.

dine-in
Name:  Dine In
Site:  www.dinein.in
Delivery area: Chennai
yummy-bay
Name: YummyBay
Site: www.yummybay.com
Delivery area:  Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Kerala
zomato
Name: Zomato
Site: www.zomato.com
Delivery area:  All over India (This is more a restaurant finder)
just-eat
Name:  Just Eat
Site: www.justeat.com
Delivery area:  Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai
delyver
Name:  Delyver
Site: www.delyver.com
Delivery area:  Bangalore
go-grab
Name:  GoGrab
Site: www.gograb.in
Delivery area:  Chennai