Security and the Elderly

Yesterday I painted a picture. One of an elderly person living alone where simple everyday tasks we take for granted were no longer viable. I asked the question, what do you do if you find yourself in that situation? Or what can you do if you know of someone who might be in that situation.

This is why Homelink was established. A charity dedicated to helping the elderly and vulnerable in our local community. We help over 600 people on a daily or weekly basis through the following programmes -

• a scheduled phone call. At the least it is social interaction with someone who otherwise may not have spoken to a single soul that day. And we do more, if there is no reply, we will alert a relative or friend who can then check that all is ok. If there is still no response we will alert emergency services and this has saved lives.
• A basic maintenance service. All of those 'take for granted' tasks we do whether it's fixing a dripping tap, mowing the lawn or even changing a lightbulb, we're there.
• Social Outings - yep, we do even more. We arrange social gatherings for our members so they can laugh, chat and gossip with their peers.

One day YOU might need this service so act now to make sure we are still around when the time comes. Contact us or a similar charity in your area and see what help you can give. It's worth it!

Caring for the elderly

Recently, I have been doing some research on the internet regarding what is involved in caring for an elderly parent. Apart from the costs, most want to stay in their own homes and we want what they want too. But that creates it's own issues too. Communities and family structures have changed. No longer do we all live in the same street in the same town. Families are smaller so there is less people to share the workload and it seems to fall on the shoulders of just one son or daughter to do the caring. That then causes tension in their own lives as more than likely they have jobs to go to and children of their own to care for. I have read so many blogs, posts, comments etc from caring sons and daughters who love their parent(s) dearly but are getting increasingly stressed at trying to do it all.
This is where we can step in. Charities such as ourselves can help, whether it's a simple daily phone call or some basic but much needed maintenance, we are there to help YOU help your parent. All you need to do is contact us -->> www.homelinkbray.ie