Preparing for Seniors on the Homestead

I think there are three options that adult children can make or if you are perhaps a responsible older teenager, you should consider how things will look as we enter into a life where you will be potentially caring for your parents who aren’t yet seniors but are moving in that direction.

Option 1:
If you have the financial ability, you can purchase a tiny house or shed that you will then hire a contractor to turn into a little home. If you are moving your parents out their home, into the new one you can transfer the appliances over. Your parents who have Alzheimer’s or dementia will certainly benefit from the surroundings being very similar to their memories if they have any. You can even make the outside of it close to the color and style of their previous home, even adding familiar flowers and small fruit trees that they can see out their window. If your parents own their own home, it might be a good time to sit down and discuss the instability of the future and what their plans on for their current home since we clearly see that the real estate market isn’t at its peak right now. When you are building their mini house, keep in mind that they can get weak if they are not cooled during hot temps and warmed during the coldest temps.

Option 2:
For those of you who have or plan on putting them in an assisted living facility, please keep in mind that during La Rona (read between the lines) those facilities would not let the unvaccinated into their facility, yet some states purposely placed sick patients into those facilities with those who had not yet acquired the virus. Not only will you potentially be kept from your parents, but you could be banned from removing them from the living facility to bring to your home. If you do the research, you’ll find that in some natural disasters there were some facilities that had staff that weren’t able to show up and care for patients, ran out of food or medications. My recommendation is that if you must put your parents in a living facility, set up an escape plan for your parents to literally pack up their most important items and just walk out of the facility to never return and hopefully have option 1 implemented. Be sure to have your parents get their physician to write prescriptions for emergency backup medications.

Option 3:
Move your parents into a spare bedroom in your main house so that if they are physically capable, they can help get the family prepared for anything that comes your way. For centuries, we lived as multi-generational families and only very recently in history do we see our elders being put in care facilities or left to their own devices to survive. This option allows parents to have more freedom as the grandparents can help watch the children while they are taking care of the more physically demanding items on their homestead to-do list. The percentage of elderly folks that died during hurricane Katrina was one of the highest numbers along with special needs, medically fragile and those living in poverish conditions.

Additional Advice:

1. Start a buddy system in your church or synagogue so that a younger couple can be matched with an older so that you can reduce dangers during traumatic events.
2. If your place of worship is financially capable, consider working together to get food buckets made up and stored at your church so that they can be handed out as needed in hard times. Appoint a group of trustworthy adult individuals to begin putting it together and don’t be afraid to employ the teens to stuff the buckets since they have plenty of energy. If you don’t have the finances within your church, consider asking for donations.
3. You can get extended prescriptions or emergency medications for up to a year’s worth so be sure to contact your doctor and pharmacist to get that started as soon as possible. If your physician refuses to give you these, find another doctor that will respect your concerns and wishes.
4. If you or your elderly parents use them, get a stockpile of Depends or similar products along with wipes and any OTC abrasion medications that they may require down the road.
5. While you may be tempted to help one or more elderly neighbors, please keep in mind that you will become a target of theft or violence if you are known to the entire neighborhood as the “preppers”. You can suggest that elderly make their way to your church or local community center where they can find supplies during emergencies or use that as a cover to take the handicapped a bucket of supplies.
6. Every house needs at least one first aid kit but plan for multiple depending on your specific family unit.
7. Be sure that your seniors have some way to defend themselves as well as having smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers.
8. If your elderly have health issues, work on getting them a medical alert bracelet or create a printout to put up for first responders to see, be sure to include medications and family contact information.

As always, if you need my assistance, you can find me on facebook, mewe and Gab.