By Clifford Ndujihe
With biting hardship, and tight schedules to make ends meet, a lot of working class adults are finding it difficult to cater for their aged parents. Other than personally caring for their parents under the same roof, some have adopted other options. One of the options is hiring a care-giver or taking the parents to old peoples’ homes.
Are you too busy to take care of your aged parents? Will you hire a care-giver to take care of them on your behalf? Or will you take them to the old peoples’ home?
Nigerians express diverse views
Some Nigerians have expressed diverse views on care for the aged and the idea of putting them in old people’s homes.
They expressed their views in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday.
Places where the elderly can be taken for care include old people’s home, elderly care home, home for the elderly, nursing agency and senior citizens care home.
Lagos State Government has one of such facilities. Known as Old People’s Home and located at Birrel Avenue, Yaba, the facility is under the state’s Ministry of Youth and Social Development.
Elderly deserve reciprocity in care –Ayodeji
Mr Elijah Ayodeji, an Assistant Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Lagos State, said that the elderly deserve adequate care in reciprocity for their sacrifices when young.
The Finance expert said he would not want to put his parents in old people’s home or any similar facility due to psychological and cultural reasons.
According to him, his parents sacrificed a lot by taking care of him from infancy and would not be fairly rewarded with care given by an outsider.
He said he would do his best to privately care for his parents during their old age., and “in a situation where I am in a different country, I will employ professionals who can attend to them and make them comfortable in their own home.”
He continued: “It is a different case if they need extra special care which I am unable to provide privately,” adding in such a situation, he would take them to a place where they would receive such care.
“However, I will have to ensure that I am present and not distant when they are in such a place because I don’t want to have a sense of abandoning my parents in their old age,” he said.
Sending parents to old peoples’ home’s unpopular here – Bolaji
Mr Tolu Bolaji, an Information Technology Network Administrator at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, said that sending aged people to special homes was not popular in Nigeria.
According to Bolaji, one of the things that make parents happy in old age is being near their children.
He said that being in a special home would not be the same as having one’s children around.
He also said the homes would not have a direct psychological impact on one’s parents.
“I have heard about some other initiatives for old people such as well-meaning individuals organising hangouts for them once or twice a month. In such gatherings, they discuss and share old memories because they have things in common,” he said.
Going to elderly facility should be last resort – Omole
A 73-year-old retired banker, Pastor Toyin Omole, said she disliked taking the aged to old people’s homes.
She, however, said that if no child would be available to take adequate care of aged parents, instead of making them suffer, they could be taken to such homes to relate with other adults and avoid loneliness.
She advised that children should take turns to care of their parents at old age.
“When they see their children, they feel loved.
“There are some old people who won’t leave their house no matter what. It varies from one individual to another,” the pastor said.
Don’t force them to old peoples’ home
She advised that aged parents should not be forced to go to such homes, adding that a nurse or housekeeper could be employed to care for them in their own houses.
“Some wonder why they should be in such a home when they are not childless.
“Usually in Africa, we don’t like going to homes. Any of the children who can accommodate parents in their personal spaces will take care of them.”
A retiree, Mrs Kemi Alabi, said that taking the elderly to homes was not the best because cases of maltreatment could arise.
“If my parents were still alive, I won’t think about putting them there,” she said.
She said that such homes could only be meaningful with effective management in place.
A mother of three, Mrs Opeyemi Akinsanya, shared her experience of taking her aged mother to such a home.
Akinsanya said that she resorted to the home because she could not care for her mother.
“My mother needed to be in the care of professionals, and I could not provide it.
“The old people’s home was the cheapest I could see at the time. The home cared for my mother until she passed on,” she said.
NAN
