(PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE SCHEME FOR NRIS ONLY. WE DO NOT ENTERTAIN REQUESTS FOR PARENTS AND RELATIVES OF NRIS UNLESS SUCH REQUESTS ARE MADE BY NRIS)
When it comes to Indian scenario, care of the elderly parents should not be a gesture of sympathy, rather it is a necessity which can only be addressed by their loved ones.
Services to elderly people are provided by the social services in developed countries, although they are means tested. Unfortunately, in India, such services are not available. Therefore MGICMH has taken a lead in providing such services to elderly parents of NRIs. The model is an imitation of the services provided to the elderly in the United Kingdom, but tailored to Indian setting.
Employment opportunities in US, UK, Australia and Gulf countries have changed fortunes and lives of many Indian families. Vast majority of NRIs come from middle class background. However, as time passes over, parental responsibilities appear in front of them. Of course, not everyone’s story is the same. Some are lucky to have siblings in India who are able to look after the needs of parents. In some cases siblings in India may not be able to take care of parents for whatever reason.
Priorities of people in India have been changing at a faster pace like any other developing country. People are much busier than they were a decade ago. This situation creates difficulty in asking help from relatives to keep up with parental needs.
The quality of healthcare provided in India can vary greatly depending on who you are, who you know and where your parents live. It is not easy to get a straight answer from many doctors for the question ‘what is wrong with my dad’s health?’ NRI patients are seen as ‘difficult’ patients by some of the doctors in India because they would ask ‘questions’.
In these circumstances, we felt that there is a genuine need for reliability, accountability and independence in provision of care for elderly parents, which NRIs from Guntur and surroundings might find useful. Empower trust, which has already been running a comprehensive mental healthcare unit in Guntur, has now started a service for parents of NRIs who live in Guntur, Vijayawada and surrounding areas.
Many parents of NRIs are middle aged, physically and mentally able and can manage their affairs independently for very long time. However, as people grow older, disabilities can be acquired due to age and illness. Most importantly conditions affecting heart and brain tend to cause physical and mental impairments. When elderly persons suffer from acute health hazards like heart attack and brain strokes, they need longer term care to prevent further attacks and deterioration in their health.
As a son or daughter who is living abroad, you may feel you are stuck in a difficult situation if such things happen to your parents. On one hand you feel like taking care of elderly parents, on the other hand you have a responsibility for the future of your young family.
If your parents happen to live in Guntur or Vijayawada and surrounding areas, our services will be able to help.
WHAT ARE THE NEEDS OF ELDERLY PARENTS IN INDIA?
For the ease of understanding, it is helpful to view the needs of elderly persons from 3 different perspectives i.e. Healthcare, Social care and Psychological needs.
Healthcare needs
Most common disorders elderly persons suffer from are long term conditions like hypertension, arthritis and Diabetes Mellitus. Some of these conditions require regular monitoring in particular hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus. In addition to this, elderly persons are more likely to be on several medications on a long term basis and they can get confused with timing of administration of medication which can lead to errors in dosage.
Social care needs
With regards to social needs, issues can vary widely depending on the individual situation. Keeping up with shopping, cleaning the house, cooking food and keeping up with medical appointments can be a challenge for elderly persons. Due to increasing age, memory and learning can become affected. From buying a SIM card to withdrawing money from ATM can be a problem, in some cases. Such situations can open up elderly people to financial abuse from strangers.
Psychological needs
Psychological needs of elderly parents must be acknowledged. The most common psychological problems elderly persons face are anxiety related disorders and depression. Most common psychological reasons for these disorders are loneliness and lack of occupation. In addition to this, incidence of conditions like Dementia and Parkinson’s disease is increasing due to increased lifespan of people in India. As much as people do not wish to be stigmatized, they will need a good quality assessment and treatment, when there is a genuine need. Therefore a sensitive approach to psychological problems is necessary.
WHAT DOES THIS SERVICE PROVIDE?
Assessment of individual needs
Provision of medical and psycho-social support services
Our service mainly focuses on physical healthcare and psycho-social care of elderly parents of NRIs. We appreciate that not everyone’s problems are same. Therefore the key aspect of this service is individualised assessment of needs and provision of care.
Initially a comprehensive assessment is carried out at home and a formulation of needs along with a care plan is prepared with few practical recommendations. This will be sent by mail to NRI person, whoever wanted the service for his / her parents. The care plan will also be discussed with parents in India and final ratification is made.
The invoice of charges will be sent to the person who requested the service. Once the agreement takes place, the service delivery will start.
We can monitor blood pressure and blood glucose of your elderly parents – Our care workers are trained to measure blood pressure and blood glucose on regular basis at home. If they find any measurements are abnormal, they will alert your parents so that they can pursue appropriate course of action.
Regular measuring and monitoring of blood pressure and blood glucose on regular basis at home
We can support your elderly parents to get out and about –
Our care workers can
- accompany your elderly parents on evening walks, attending temples, mosques and any places of worship.
- accompany their shopping visits, or do the shopping (purchasing and bringing groceries) trips for them.
- accompany your parents to attend hospital appointments
- arrange dental appointment and treatment
- accompany them to attend dental appointments
- arrange eye check up appointments
- accompany them to attend eye clinic and help them buy glasses
- help in bringing medicines from medical shop
- help in paying bills on behalf of your elderly parents – electricity, water bills, property tax
- provide help their routine bank work according to individual needs
- provide sitting service (staying with elderly people for few hours in a day)
- emergency sleep-in service to stay with elderly persons overnight (not more than 1 week)
- provide company as attendants and offer some help when there is a need for staying few days in hospital
- video chat through Skype to talk to parents from abroad
We also care for people with Dementia and Alzheimer’s – We have considerable experience of caring for people with dementia. We can help in the assessment of dementia by qualified doctors, prepare a care package depending on their needs. This includes medication management.
Video chat through Skype to talk to parents from abroad – MGICMH, which has one of its main objectives as supporting the families back in India, mainly parents, has developed a new service for a reasonable cost. Basically NRIs whose families living in Guntur district can arrange to talk to their loved ones through Skype. The institution has community support workers who can travel to any village in Guntur district with a laptop/ tablet with 3G connection by an appointment.
This is an exclusive service for NRIs who wish to talk to their loved ones face to face. As you know, mobile phones in India made the communications so easy that now-a-days you can talk to anyone in India even if they reside in a small village, more or less. However, sometimes you may feel like seeing them face to face and talk to them. In fact several NRIs have arranged video chat through Skype and other means.
However this can be an expensive business given the fact that you only want to have a face to face chat once in a while and there are practical issues like training family members using laptop or tablet. Problems with internet connection and the lack of support when things go wrong either in the Internet connection or in the instrument can also be barriers to set up a regular Skype connection back home.
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF OUR SERVICE
Clear and appropriate communication – From the point of request for service we ensure that a clear and appropriate communication is established. We strongly encourage a direct communication between our service and the beneficiaries and their families. We strongly discourage direct communication with carers other than the context of service provision.
This just means that if you need any additional service, we ask you as customers to communicate with our managers directly. In the same way, we ask you to communicate with our managers directly if you are unhappy with any aspect of the service provided.
Vulnerability of elderly people – We are well aware of the risk of vulnerability of elderly persons and their families. Therefore mechanisms to minimise the risk of exploitation of elderly persons are put in place.
Reliability of carers – In India, we do not have a system of vetting of care workers or any other professionals. In such a scenario, we try our best to employ care workers who are reliable, well mannered and helpful in attitude. We try to make sure that they do not have criminal behaviour and neglecting attitude.
We normally employ the care workers who would have had a year’s training in our institution before they are employed as care workers. This means that the service would have known them for at least a year and would know their strengths and weaknesses. Having described our method of vetting our care workers, it is important to emphasise that no better method of vetting the staff is available in India now.
We therefore insist that we allocate a well defined role for them in any individual customer’s care. Additional mechanisms like training, group meetings and supervision of care workers on a weekly basis and frequent feedback from customers are likely to minimise the risk of exploiting the elderly persons.
WHAT WE MAY BE ABLE TO PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ?
Our care assistant staff may be able provide services like
Cleaning services
Cooking
Nursing care
Post-operative rehabilitation care
We began providing the above services in January 2016 to few elderly parents. We may now be able to provide some of these services on case to case basis.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT A SERVICE TO PROVIDE HOUSEMAIDS. THERE IS A DISTINCTION BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL CARE SERVICES AND HOUSEMAID SERVICES WHICH I BELIEVE MOST NRIs CAN EASILY APPRECIATE.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SERVICES
We are developing new services like nursing care at home, day center, home based physiotherapy services, cleaning and cooking services at home. However this requires time and further assessment of needs. If you think you need services like these, please express your interest. Depending on the need and our capacity at the time we will try to do our best.
Right now this service is made available in Guntur and Vijayawada towns only. There are plans to extend this service to bigger towns in Guntur and Krishna district in future. We are unable to offer this service in smaller towns and villages because we have no clear idea about the need.
We certainly do not have intend to extend these services to any other districts. However, if anybody from any other districts in AP, Telangana or any other state in India wishes to develop services like these in their area, we will certainly support them and share good practice with them.
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
You can make an informal or formal complaint. You will get an answer.
HOW MUCH DOES THIS SERVICE COST?
It is more appropriate to discuss the costs after the assessment. This can be discussed over the phone once the assessment is complete. However if you wish to find out the costs, please do not hesitate to ring us or mail us.
HOW TO SEEK HELP?
(PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE SCHEME FOR NRIS ONLY. WE DO NOT ENTERTAIN REQUESTS FOR PARENTS AND RELATIVES OF NRIS UNLESS SUCH REQUESTS ARE MADE BY NRIS)
If you are an NRI and if your parents live in Guntur town or Vijayawada town and if you think your parents need this service, please send a mail to mgicmhindia@gmail.com and register your interest. We can organize an assessment of your parents’ needs once we agree on time.
A comprehensive assessment of needs will be carried out by a professional person. We will send you a report, thereafter, along with our service options and their costs. Services are available as care packages and as additional services.
You can then opt for the services you want and pay by debit card or PayPal.
You will be provided a monthly activity report which will contain the details of all the visits carried out by the care workers along with the activities carried out by them.
CONTACT US –
Phone – Ms Asha Avula on 0091 9949401495 (Indian time 9.00 AM to 8.00 PM)
E mail us on <mgicmhindia@gmail.com>
OUR SPECIAL APPEAL TO ALL THE NRIS
Are you a NRI? Then we have this important message for you.
No, your head won’t break into 1000 pieces if you do not pass this message to 10 people within 5 minutes.
However we would say that if you pass this message to / share the link or information with your NRI contacts, it may help someone. It may turn out to be one of the biggest humane help you did to your friend / relative or to some unknown person.
What else do you need? So, please, we urge you to pass this message on to all the NRIs you know from your FB friends, email contacts or any other social network.
We ask you to read the information provided with this link. There is a genuine need to develop services like these in India. However, it is important to acknowledge that services like these cannot be hugely profit making and therefore cannot afford to spend much money for marketing. We strongly believe that the service development should be needs-led.
We hope that if you spread this message now to as many people as you can, it may inspire someone from your area to take up this as an issue and to develop a new service in your area. You may think this service does not apply to you in your current situation and may proceed to ignore it. But who knows?
Your parents or your friends/ relatives may need this service in future at some point and if you do not at least spread the word now, you may not find this information when you need it in future. Therefore, we need to think broadly and pass this information / link to all the NRIs you are aware of, regardless of whether you think they can directly benefit from this service or not. Again who knows? Your message / email may reach someone from Guntur and Vijayawada and may benefit from this service.
We therefore request every NRI, whether or not they come from Guntur and Krishna districts in AP, India to share the information about the availability of this service.