Senior Care in India is All About Family

We live in the United States, so most of our attention, both personally and professionally, is devoted to the U.S. But that doesn’t mean that other countries do not matter and it doesn’t mean that we cannot learn things from the senior care practices of other nations. We’ve looked at Japan in the past on this blog, as well as a handful of European countries. Today, we’re going to look at India, the second largest country in the world by population.

 

One thing to know right off the bat about India is that the cultural tradition that most of the country experiences is that it is unacceptable to hire a professional caregiver. If you cannot give care on your own as a family, many people feel guilty and that they are inadequate. This can lead to feelings of guilt and other intense negative emotions. This isn’t because they aren’t doing their job as a family member, but because they aren’t doing it all by themselves. Even in-home care can be frowned upon. It uses an outsider to the family and has that professional caregiver come into your home to provide care. This is a convenient and cost effective method of care for us, but is considered irresponsible in places like India.

 

It is even normal in India to have a team of many doctors that your family works with, but geriatric care is very seldomly included in these teams. It is very important in this culture that family members care for their elderly.

 

Senior care in India is considered to be a matter reserved for family members only.

 

In the U.S., it is customary to hire a caregiver if that’s the best choice for your family. Even many families that cannot easily afford access to affording senior care have options before them thanks to the fact that Medi-Cal (for California residents) can step in and cover much of the cost associated with care. However, maybe we have something to learn even from the Indian custom of keeping care within the family. Even though this might seem backward or even harmful to us, there’s a lot to be said about family members providing care. Studies show that when care is provided in a familiar place by familiar people, the perceived level of care that is given is often much better. The person receiving care is healthier and tends to see their health decline much more slowly.

 

It’s important to realize that love and compassion are an important part of the care world. Almost anyone can just supervise a senior citizen and help them out with things once in a while throughout the day. But it is a rare person that can provide love and comfort while doing so. That’s why we believe it’s so important to hire a caregiver that has been trained, but also has the right background that indicates they will help you to show love even while you’re not there. If you can’t be a caregiver yourself, hiring a professional that has all of those important but often unacknowledged traits that you desire is a good idea.

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