A good alternative to taking good care of older parents and grandparents is spending time with them.
Company and friends can be the best medicine in old age. Therefore, the most important thing that children must do to properly care for their parents when they are already elderly is to relate to them or provide them with spaces where they can share with others.
This is the main recommendation of the geriatrician specializing in Palliative Care Diego Fernando González. “Loneliness sickens and causes death,” he says, and says that the main complaints of his patients are precisely isolation and that they are not taken into account.
Is clear Doctors and caregivers can fulfill their mission such as controlling disease, helping them take their medications on time, cooking their food, cleaning the home, or doing laundry. But nothing will make a person feel better than having love and people around them.
A call every day, an honest and prolonged conversation, beyond “how are you?”, In which the son or the grandson tell their parents about their daily life or talk about any topic can be more important and comforting for the soul has to find a person who stays by his side all day, but does not create a true bond
According to studies cited in the book ‘Turning Years Without Getting Old’, by the doctor and researcher West endure, an aging expert and professor of geriatric medicine in Copenhagen, the elderly who often receive visits and make contacts with friends or family have a better quality of life, they feel more vital and satisfied.
Doctor recommends that if an elderly person decides to stay and live at home, but totally isolated, the best thing their children can do is suggest joining a retirement club or participating in activities with others, such as those offered by most of the mayors and governorates of the country. But, if this is not possible, the best thing then is to ensure that he lives in places where he can share with other people.
Gloria Herrera de Palacios is 80 years old and lives in Chai, in a place built and designed especially for the elderly. There he has an apartment where his children and grandchildren can stay to sleep, and he participates in daily activities with the other inhabitants of the place, such as board games, talks and movies. Those who live there have their own apartments, they are assisted with cleaning their houses and nurses who help them, for example, with medicines and other medical matters. Her daughter claims that her mother is independent and that it was she herself who decided to sell her house and organize her new life.
