Care For the Elderly

It was early in the morning of 16th December last year when my 89 year old father rang me to say he was experiencing pains in his chest. Being dad, he'd already summoned help and the paramedics were on their way. He was whisked into A and E and treated swiftly and effectively for a heart attack.
But that was only the beginning.
My once fiercely independent father was now a hospital patient in a horrendously busy cardiac ward, from which he was discharged with no support whatsoever. While we gave him all the care we could we didn't know to whom to turn, or what was available. And would he now be able to live
independently? Just a few weeks into his recovery, he caught pneumonia and found
himself back in hospital. Once again, his treatment was effective, but the problems in the hospital ward were challenging, and it was hard to get the balance right between advocating for dad, and harassing the over-burdened staff.
Dad's much better now, and still living independently, but with added support. I feel as I've been on a very steep learning curve, and I know I was woefully under-informed about care for the elderly. And I had few people to talk to about some of the difficult decisions that had to be made.

For that reason I wanted to have a morning at Shul where anyone in my position, or likely to be in my
position, might come along and listen to experts talk about the systems that I found so baffling, and to air some of the issues affecting looking after elderly family members.
If this is you, or if you know any fellow congregants in this position, please do urge them to come along to Shul this Sunday 26th April at 11am to our session entitled Care for the Elderly. Our speakers are Lee Bloomfield and Avrom Baker.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Sherry Ashworth