Senior Care

There are many levels and types of senior care available to senior citizens. As the category of senior citizens sometimes includes persons as young as 55, but always begins in the early 60;s, there are many seniors who do not require senior care of any kind. In other instances, seniors may be living with or adjacent to other family members, who often provide minimal senior care to fathers and mothers, grandparents or even older brothers and sisters.
Senior care in these cases may simply be driving seniors on errands, or senior care at minimal levels can also mean assisting with housework and shopping.

At the level of minimal senior care is the situation where caregivers come to the home on a regular basis to provide basic senior care in terms of assistance with chores, shopping trips and trips to doctors or dentists. This type of senior care is usually provided to seniors who are still partially independent and in relative good health.

The next level of senior care may be a caregiver who comes daily to the home to assist a senior with limited mobility with both personal care, cleaning and some outside-the-home chores. Many communities have centers which provide this type of senior care to local citizens.

Many seniors with fairly substantial incomes live in senior communities where various levels of senior care are offered, ranging from simple senior care such as cleaning and shopping services, to daily help with personal and household activities.

In older times, when most seniors simply continued to live with family members, senior care was relegated to those family members...usually the woman of the household. Senior care for low-income seniors who had no household in which to live, sometimes consisted of relegation to city, county or state facilities where senior care was minimal and conditions often unpleasant. Fortunately in recent decades both government and local communities offer more choices and opportunities for senior care.

Seniors who enjoy good health and lead active lives are less likely to require high levels of senior care as they grow older. Of course the incidence of accidents or unexpected illness can change lives unexpectedly, and a formerly healthy active person may suddenly require senior care at a fairly high level. Insurance policies and savings accounts can help guard against the expenses of intensive senior care.

It is a fact, however, that better programs for maintaining health, both physical and mental, among an aging population, will have an effect on the necessity for senior care. There are both government and local agencies concerned with senior care who are promoting programs to ensure a healthier senior population and reduce the need for expensive senior care.

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