Elderly Caregiving - Can we Track the Beat?

Anju Kaushik started little squirrel – a day care, after a 15 year career break. It was exhilarating for her to get back to work. She was teaching in a school when her father-in-law died of tuberculosis.  At the same time her mother-in-law, who was suffering from multiple health issues had to be taken care of. Anju’s husband was always traveling, she had no option but to quit. All this while Anju considered a lot of options, including joining back the school, trading in shares but ultimately she chose day care, considering care-giving her forte.

A squadron leader in the Indian Air Force quit after 11 years in the forces. Her story is no different from Anju’s, her mother-in-law has been paralyzed for the past 5 years and requires attention. It wasn’t possible for her to travel for work with her husband posted in another city. The officer found it a hard decision to make and if given an opportunity would still want to go back to doing what she loved.

This report states 36 percent of Indian women take a break from work. Interestingly, while women everywhere seem to be taking breaks for childcare, in India a large number take time off to look after elders. Almost 80 percent of women surveyed said they were leaving for eldercare, as compared to 30 percent in US and only 18 percent in Germany.

About 65 per cent of the aged depend on others for their day-to-day maintenance. Although, women quitting jobs to take care of elderly is something inevitable, we could use Apps like TrackMyBeat to create a comprehensive health management plan for elderly. Their services allow individuals to manage the health of elderly parents from anywhere. A caregiver or family member can monitor their health remotely and even seek secondary advice in case of complications.

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