Omashram Trust, An Old Age Home

Are we ready for the evening of our lives?

Should we worry about it? Or do we need to plan for it? What could be the reasons driving us towards planning for the evening of our lives after all? What’s the big deal after all?

The deal is that…..’WE ARE ALL GETTING THERE!’

There will be aches and pains, sleeplessness, memory loss, loneliness.

And there could be financial insecurities and abuse too as we keep losing physical strength.

Have you heard of something called Elder Abuse? Do you know who abuses them?

Elder Abuse is a stark truth that prevails in human society across the globe. Domestic elder abuse is becoming increasingly recognized as a social problem in many countries.

Why does elder abuse and neglect remain hidden and unacknowledged? It exists in all kinds:

• Physical abuse
• Economic maltreatment
• Emotional abuse
• Verbal abuse
• Psychological abuse

Many older people are worried about their family’s privacy. They worry that they would not be believed. They feel shame and hurt when a child they raised is the abuser.  The older people who move to the home for aged do so with fear as a prelude to death. Many reasons prevent older person from reporting abuse. The victim may resist out of parental love, or out of a sense that a parent should protect, nurture and financially support an adult child no matter what the child has done.

A BRIEF STORY

The well-dressed unconscious old lady who was found lying unconscious on the railway platform by the Good #Samaritan was taken by him to the nearby hospital for treatment. He found out soon from the railway authorities that she was in this situation for a week. The CCTV footage further revealed that a week ago in the middle of the night two well-dressed women alighted a train along with this old lady, they made her sit on a bench and left immediately by boarding the same train. The Good Samaritan ensured she was treated well at the hospital and tried to get her back to her senses. They fought for a week, the wretched soul didn’t give up too for the whole week and then finally decided to free everyone of any responsibilities towards her. Nevertheless, the final rites were performed by the Good Samaritan.

The ghastly stories of #abuse and #abandonment come back to haunt every now and then. A helpless father being beaten up by his own son in a plush apartment complex, a mother abandoned by her son on a highway in the name of a long drive, a #dementia struck man of above sixty left in an air-conditioned first class compartment of a train neatly tucked in an expensive wheelchair, the eighty-five-year-old lady found unconscious by a Good Samaritan on a railway platform, an old man lying dead in another railway platform, ignored by passers-by and the authorities. Such incidents are rampant, irrespective of educational or financial backgrounds. We can opt to be like an Ostrich, but that’s not the attitude that could help reduce such incidents. These are stark truths, hard facts!

We need a #community of philanthropists and the YOUTH like the Good Samaritan, who are willing to go beyond business and bring about a #social #change holistically as far as elderly care is concerned.

Don’t those wrinkled faces, the forlorn eyes, the longing for emotional intimacy and the physical affection tear you apart.

Could we do something to provoke our conscience regarding the trend of abandoning our aging and helpless elderly?  Would you like to join us in this pursuit of lending a helping hand to those who are caring for those in the autumn of their lives? Together we can do more. Waiting to hear from you!

Our Charity Partner/Beneficiary ~ www.omashram.org