Caring for the Elderly

As the baby-boomer population ages, caring for the elderly becomes a more useful skill to have. I don't profess to be an expert on this but I read a great article about this very topic. The author summarizes the basic parts of providing care for the elderly to be:
  • Provide a home
  • Offer legal help and support
  • Help with financial responsibilities
  • Arrange resident nursing care
  • Deal with mental health and medical issues related to aging such as dementia, Alzheimer's, etc.
  • Meet their socialization needs
  • Help the elderly make decisions, including those about dying, i.e. living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc.
This is a useful list but I think I'd like to add one more thing - quality of life. Now for the most part, we're talking about caring for a loved-one. For these dear people, surely we would want to provide them the most dignified and fun environment to live in spite of their challenges. This means providing an environment that not only provides food and medical care, but also an element of relationships and recreational activities.