Sivaramakrishnan is a retired engineer from a public sector undertaking. His only son lives in the USA. The retired engineer has to be with his son's family for a month but he has been postponing the visit because he is worried about his wife who cannot travel. With no relatives or close friends around in Madurai, where he has recently taken an apartment, leaving his wife alone is impossible.
Mr. Sivaramakrishnan is not a lone person experiencing this predicament. There are families which want to go on a holiday; professionals who wish to go abroad; parents who aspire to be with their children, especially during child birth. All of them have aged parents or grandparents at home to be taken care of. They are not sure whether the same love and care will be provided for the aged persons in their absence.
The concept of ‘respite care' has picked up in USA, Europe and Australia. But it is virtually unknown in Madurai. ‘Respite care' is short-term relief to those who care for family members who are either sick or infirm. It involves physical and emotional support during the short stay away from home. But it is scarce and sometimes inaccessible and unaffordable. In the Indian context, there is also another dimension to it, says K. S. Sundaram, General Manager, LiveWell Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, located at Poovanthi near Madurai on Sivaganga Road. It is not only sickness or infirmity that compels old people to be under constant care. Even normal people require it when their families are away. He prefers to call it short-stay care. Apart from providing physical care, with nutritious food, the institute offers emotional support on a sylvan setting, Dr. Sundaram says.
Venugopal Kochiyil, a rehabilitation therapist, says LiveWell Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine is ideally suited to provide short-stay care. With its trained medical and para-medical personnel and provision for stay, rehabilitation and rejuvenation, the institute is in a position to cater to the needs of people from a minimum of two days to five weeks. It also has facilities for medical and physical rehabilitation of people with neurological, musculo-skeletal, orthopaedic and other medical conditions, post-hospitalisation for their main problems.
A pilot study conducted elsewhere has revealed that respite stay may also reduce the likelihood of divorce and help sustain marriages.
More details about LiveWell Institute can be had from 9487881561 and 8903012858.
