Taking Steps to Protect Elder Orphans

The Baby Boomer generation has been turning 65 for a few years now, and this has brought a strain upon the elder care system. One issue where more improvement is needed is the concept of elder orphans.

 

An elder orphan is a senior citizen that does not have any children or a spouse to help them as they age. These are the individuals that are most likely to “fall through the cracks,” so to speak, as they age. Without an advocate to speak up for them, if something like dementia is present, or if there is just a general resistance to asking for help, these are the people who might really need in-home care or another type of senior care, but are not very likely to receive it.

 

That begs a very important question: what can we do to take steps to help protect elder orphans?

 

The generation that is turning 65 now, or will soon be doing so, is more likely to have never married and never have had children than any group of seniors before in the history of the U.S. This means that there will be many more individuals that don’t have family members to speak up for them. And because this is the largest population boost ever seen, the numbers are already much larger than what the current senior care infrastructure was capable of handling.

 

Elder orphans have a growing need for senior care.

 

This issue is not a new one, but like many other areas of senior care, it is going too increase in severity. According to a newer survey, about 70 percent of seniors that expect to be elder orphans have not made any plans for senior care. These people might not think that they will need senior care, or they might think that it’s a distant issue. Either way, they are not thinking realistically about the problem.

 

It’s important that we address this questions in our own lives. Do we know seniors that fit in this category? How can we become a bigger part of their lives? What steps can we put in place to keep them safe? Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that the government can do at this point to step in. That means that we have a responsibility to keep our eyes open and to be helpers in this part of our community. Where formal systems of protection fail, we need to step up and take over. Doing this on a small scale basis can ensure that the people that we know and love have the assistance that they need. If enough people do this, then we can get our society to a place where the lives of seniors are drastically improved across the board.

 

Here’s a final thought on the subject: about 22 percent of older Americans fit into the categories of being an elder orphan or solo ager or will in the near future. This is a much bigger problem than it might seem at first, but by focusing on the areas that we have some control over, we can take the first steps toward helping those that are in need.

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