A Crisis Plan for your Elderly Parents

Remember that caring for your aging parents always includes planning. A little advance planning does away with the panic that arises during most medical emergencies. A little planning ensures that your elder care solution is always hitch-free.

Are you caring for your aging parents? If so, as part of your elder care solution it is imperative to have a crisis plan ready. A crisis can come at any moment and can include things like broken ankle, hip fractures, spondilitis, strokes etc. Here are a few points to consider:

1. If you stay more than a four blocks away, as part of your caring for your aging parents plan, or your elder care solution, you might want to befriend a few neighbors who live near your parents' house. In an emergency they can probably reach your parents much faster than you could. Besides, when the dreaded call comes, you might be out of town or even out of the country. At times such as these, it is the neighbors that are of most help and in any case, those precious few minutes might make all the difference.

2. As part of your caring for your aging parents plan, or your elder care solution, keep a few phone numbers handy. These would be phone numbers of the milk supplier, newspaper supplier, garbage disposal, utility services etc. If your parents have any pets, include a few numbers to the local pet care center. I know this plan will probably sound strange to you but at some point in time if you ever have to rush either parent to the local hospital, you will want to refer to these numbers.

3. As part of you’re caring for your aging parents plan, or your elder care solution, talk to other siblings if any. Work out a schedule as to who will check in on your parents. Such schedules are usually worked out on a day-of-the-week basis. It helps to distribute the responsibility so each sibling has equal spare time. If a crisis arises then the brother or sister or relative responsible for checking in your parents for that particular day, will be the first to attend to your parents and also ensure emergency medical care or hospitalization.

4. As part of your caring for your aging parents plan, or your elder care solution, find out if your parents have adequate medical insurance. If they do not have it, you might want to talk with your siblings on cost distribution and you need to do it before a crisis arises. Such plans should ideally be in writing and signed by all who will share the financial costs. You don’t want to have running battles during a medical crisis.

5. If you have both your parents then the most likely scenario would be that one of them has a medical crisis and requires hospitalization while the other would probably need looking after. Again, as part of your caring for your aging parents plan, or your elder care solution, work with your siblings to decide in advance who will look after the non-hospitalized parent.