Care for your aging parents

Article last updated: 20/05/09

The desire to look after our parents in their later years is important both to their health and care and to your desire to do the right thing. Apart from getting home help from local health care providers, the options are normally limited to them living in their own home, or with you or in some form of aged care.

The thought of your parents moving into aged care facilities is also normally not desired by them. This is one of the hardest decisions children and parents need to make. Talking to your parent and siblings early about aged care facilities and the services they provide may help the situation.

Once the decision is made there are many other decisions that need to be made. Does the facility require a bond? Where is this coming from? Is the family home to be sold? There are health care professionals you can consult with to help.

Be smart about lifestyle changes and financial costs
Research shows that many carers in Australia are family and friends1 and of those carers:

• More than a fifth (21percent) need to reduce their hours of work2
• More than one in ten (11percent) need to resign completely from positions of employment3.

• the cost of medical assistance
• restrictions on your ability to work or become ∙educated, which can affect your capacity to earn an income
• changes in your lifestyle, which may result in reduced mobility and changes to your home, which can be costly to manage
• the need for long-term care, which can be expensive. Without insurance, whose financial future might you be putting at risk?