Assisted living: Exploring options for senior citizens

Like so many Indians Chandrakant Shinde 78 and his wife Madhuri 74 had a simple retirement plan They were among the most ldquoactiverdquo senior citizens in their neighbourhood in Mira Road so they were perfectly content continuing to live there even after their son Dipak moved to Pen Raigad district in 2019 for his sonrsquos education Chandrakantrsquos daily onehour walk and chats with other senior citizens in the colony ensured he was active and had an emotional support systemldquoAll that changed six months ago when Baba suffered a stroke paralysis The fact that he couldnrsquot move around was getting to him which is why we hired a caretaker Babula Nahak from an agency that provides assistance for the elderlyrdquo Dipak recallsSeniors at Chai Masti Centre in Tardeo run by the Dignity Foundation meet up for cuppa every evening PicsKirti Surve ParadeOn the night of September 27 an inebriated Nahak assaulted a sleeping Chandrakant while his wife was out Nahak is reported to have climbed up the slumbering septuagenarian and punched him continuously Chandrakant died on October 19 succumbing to his extensive injuries after battling for his life for 23 days ldquoAai is with me in Pen for now She is completely traumatisedrdquo Dipak tells Sunday midday adding that Nahak is currently out on bail This is an all too real fear for many families in the citymdashand the countrymdashwhere the elderly are left vulnerable due to poor retirement planning whether this is because of a lack of awareness or the infrastructure required to help citizens plan for their golden yearsChandrakant Shinde succumbed to his injuries in OctoberAccording to the United Nations Population Fundrsquos UNPF India Ageing Report 2023 India is home to 149 crore people aged 60 years and above as of July 2022 comprising around 105 per cent of the countryrsquos population By 2050 this number is set to double to 208 per cent with 347 crore elderly folk By the end of the century the elderly will constitute over 36 per cent of the countryrsquos population predicts the reportAs retirement infrastructure grows to become the need of the hour the central government too is mulling on reforms to push for accelerated growth in this sectorSuchitra Kamath Meenakshi Bhanj Deo mental health coach Sheila Sreenivasan founder Dignity FoundationDriving change on this front are organisations like the Dignity Foundation which is probably the largest senior care organisation in the country Sheila Sreenivasan founded it in 1995 when she was the managing editor of the Tata Institute Social Sciencesrsquo inhouse magazine The Indian Journal of Social WorkIt was a chance encounter with an elderly woman in Frankfurt that led to the birth of Dignity Foundation says Sreenivasan ldquoA senior Indian woman on a wheelchair had been abandoned at Frankfurt airport and I happened to be taking a layover flight from there back to Mumbai The airport authorities asked me to help because both of us were visibly Indian in our sareesmdashherrsquos was white indicating widowhoodrdquo recalls Sreenivasan who is now close to 80 herselfDespite some apprehension of missing her flight home Sreenivasan accompanied the woman to a senior living facility 45 minutes away What she witnessed there changed the trajectory of her life ldquoThe senior home was so beautiful it was huge and extremely well maintained with sprawling lawns I understand that this was in Europe and that their standards are very high but it made me realise the potential of what we could do for our seniorsrdquo she says And boy did she make it happen here tooDignity LifestyleRetirement Home Township in Neral is the result of that 45minute drive in FrankfurtldquoWe have over 200 residents as well as a separate facility for those living with dementiardquo says SreenivasanSeniors are given flexible options like renting or buying flats or cottages according to their need Registration for the residential programme involves a onetime charge starting from R24 lakh Of this Rs 17 lakh is refundable upon surrender of the flat Residents also have to make monthly payments of Rs 19500 for expensesldquoThere are a lot of financial assistance schemes that senior citizens can access A few are run by private trusts such as the Ratan Tata and Azim Premji Trust but there are also many schemes under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that many seniors do not know of This lack of awareness results in them missing out on some relief they would have otherwise gotrdquo says SreenivasanldquoMany of those who do come to our facility are those who planned their retirement better than others Some never had the resources to plan it in the first place but there is a small section of seniors who are more proactive in choosing their retirement planrdquo she addsJournalist Meenakshi Sheddersquos mother who is now 97 was very proactive in her retirement planning and began making enquiries about senior living facilities in the city as far back as 2018 ldquoAmma Indu Shedde now 97 is fiercely independent and the only reason I even found out about her decision early on to move into the facility is because the lawyer handling all the legal and financial matters called to inform me that I would have to sign her admission papers as her ldquonotified personrdquo Shedde chucklesOf course no amount of planning can account for unforeseen events like the facility shutting down ldquoThe first place she picked was Sharan in Vashi but it shut down during the COVID19 pandemic She stayed with me for a year during the pandemic and later when my building underwent structural repairs we found her a wonderful place in Panvel called Shantikunj Sevashram Amma lives there in a large airy oneroom cottage with a garden which is more than enough for her Hot meals are served and no private kitchens are allowedrdquo says SheddeldquoMy mother is extremely happy with her decision and the place is more affordable than living at your own home because it is subsidised and they also take care of maintenancerepairs etc She has a livein caretaker woman got through an agency the facility suggested Even without these added services a doctor checks in on the seniors every week all yearrdquo she addsAn often neglected factor in retirement planning is accounting for emotional support systems and community engagement especially with more and more elderly people living independently in nuclear familiesIn a 2024 survey of Indians between 2565 years conducted by Max Life Insurance to decode the retirement preparedness of urban citizens 55 per cent respondents said they live in nuclear familiesIn another study titled Loneliness in Older Indian Dyads which was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 205 per cent of adults aged 45 years and over reported moderate loneliness while 133 per cent reported severe lonelinessIn a push to combat loneliness just like any other physical ailment Dignity Foundation has opened senior citizen community centres called Chai Masti Centre at Vashi Tardeo Powai and Mahalaxmi Anyone aged 58 and above can sign up for a membership to the centre which is open from 10 am to 6 pmSuchitra Kamath who manages the Chai Masti Centre at Tardeo holds chai talks there every day between 4 pm and 7 pm ldquoThe centre works as a physical register to determine if something is wrong with any of our membersrdquo she says ldquoIt is also a place where our members feel less lonely Even if they merely come here and sit and not do much they must do at least that because most of the seniors do not have anyone to speak to Many seniors either live alone or their family members are very busyrdquo says KamathRetirement can sometimes also trigger mental health issues among the elderly triggering fears of advanced age and all the vulnerabilities it brings A 2012 reportStatus and requirements of geriatric mental health services in India revealed that 17 crore older adults post 60 years of age suffer from mental health problems in the countryOne of the recent tools in the armoury of mental health practitioners has been Cognitive Behaviour Therapy CBT which has especially proven useful for seniors ldquoCBT identifies your negative thoughts and then begins to ask openended questions with regards to those thoughtsrdquo says mental health coach Meenakshi Bhanj Deo ldquoFor example a 65yearold will be asked what their fears are about being that age Whether itrsquos a dread of being completely immobile or something else we get them to question if that fear holds groundrdquo she addsDeo believes that this therapy has helped seniors get comfortable with the idea of ageing ldquoThey start focusing on opportunities that come with each stage of life We ask them to keep a thought diary to track what triggers these thoughts of being obsolete or weak or not being in controlrdquo she addsBut the biggest hurdle still remains older generationsrsquo resistance to seeking help with mental health ldquoIt is very much a taboordquo agrees Deo ldquoAmong many elderly people mental health and therapy is still associated with lsquopagalpanrsquordquoBesides for senior citizens who already fear of loss of autonomy seeking help from someone really gets their goat particularly if that person is an ldquooutsiderrdquo says the mental health expert adding ldquoMany still feel that if they need to talk to someone they would much rather do so with familyrdquo3637of population estimated to comprise the elderly by 210010537of Indiarsquos population is aged 60 source 2022 UNPF report