Traveling with senior parents can be wrought with challenges and anxiety. By following these tips, you can be sure to have a great time making great memories with your whole family.
The holidays are here, and this means vacations and meeting families and relatives. This can also mean traveling with senior parents to your province or to some idyllic location for some rest and relaxation with the whole family.
What you may not know is this: traveling with senior parents entails a different set of challenges that you have to prepare for. This is especially true if your senior parents or loved ones have recently been diagnosed with conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and age-related diseases.
If you’re one of those who belong to the sandwich generation, which means you’re between your elderly parents and your young children, this as well as generally caregiving for your elderly can be a dilemma. You’re stuck between spending time with your own family and ensuring your senior parents are well and healthy.
To help you out, here are some tips for traveling with senior parents that you can use, especially this holiday season.
Tips for Traveling with Senior Parents
1. Be realistic. Traveling with senior parents means an added layer of challenges. There’s the issues of limited mobility, chronic illness, and many other health and safety concerns. Even your parents may have their own anxiety as they travel. Set your travel plans based on these and avoid unnecessary risks.
2. Consider their needs. When looking for accommodations as you travel, consider if they have wheelchair access if your elderly parents are on wheelchairs. Plan ahead your meals or the restaurants you’ll go to, or if you have side trips along the way. Make sure you have enough space for your elderly’s equipment or baggage. Make sure that the locations can also accommodate any special medical needs of your elderly parents.
3. Prepare your prescriptions. Review the prescriptions when traveling with elderly parents. Make sure that you have a complete set of medications for the whole duration of your vacation, as well as some extra. Be sure to also bring their prescriptions, just in case. Put all of these in one secure place so you don’t lose them. For any special medication, be sure you get documentation and clearance, especially when traveling abroad.
4. Make them comfortable. When traveling to a new place, make them feel at home by enforcing the routines they were used to at home. You can also research for local caregivers or facilities such as Big Hearts in Paranaque, Metro Manila, to help you out.
6. Plan for emergencies. It’s always better to be prepared, so be sure to have your physician’s contact details when you travel. Also research your travel itinerary and accommodations for nearby hospitals or clinics.
Traveling with elderly parents can be challenging, but with the right preparation and foresight, you can all enjoy it and make the best memories.