Imagine being in a situation on your own in your 70’s or 80’s, your lifelong spouse has passed, you live in your family home, but your kids have busy lives in London.
A minor stroke occurs, you’re in hospital, and you are told you can’t live at home on your own any longer.
You can’t stay in hospital…can’t go home… and you don’t have any family close by.
Someone needs to help you find a new home with the assistance you now need, you need help with admission and subsidy paperwork, you have to make the move, and you have belongings and property to sort, but your kids still have busy lives in London and can only return at short notice for short periods, not nearly long enough to go through this process.
This is a worrying situation that too many kiwi seniors find themselves in. Worse if the past means they don’t have positive relationships with family.
When families are at a distance, either in location or emotion, it can be a real challenge if an older person in the family needs help. Especially if something unforeseen occurs, and they suddenly find themselves in a place (physically or mentally) where different factors can affect their decision making abilities. (i.e. medical event or accident)
Medical, legal or financial information may not be clearly communicated to family, (possibly because it hasn’t been heard or understood correctly). And with unclear information, how can informed guidance or decisions be made by anyone?
Often people who need help the most are actually the wrong people to clearly advocate for themselves, especially if they feel alone. Stress, anxiety, medication… there are many factors that can cloud someone’s judgement when they don’t have anyone by their side.
The decisions made in these times can affect the rest of peoples lives, either creating social, happy environments for the future, or anxious lonely times ahead.
If you have a friend or family member that could be at risk of anything like this, please chat to them and make a plan for the “just in case”.
If you need help supporting someone elderly from overseas, we can be your local substitute.
This is from Andy:
“I wish there was an option for 10 stars. I actually don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t find Jeremy from Senior Transitions. The road ahead when we landed back in NZ to help our Dad after his stroke was so daunting. Jeremy made this such and easy process, such a nice person, nothing was a problem, he helped us with a timeline and executed on each step. I actually can’t believe we got his care, house, belongings and everything in between sorted in the limited time we had in Christchurch. Our dad is in a great home and our stress levels are now very minimal and we can enjoy our time with him.”
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