A creche for the elderly offers a way out for harried families

AgeNurture Nest Foundation in Mumbai is a day care centre for the elderly, providing services like bathing, exercise, and meals to those in need.

Mumbai: There’s the wife who feels her husband could do with some company in the evenings or the brother who has not been able to take a holiday with his wife for long as they are also the caregivers for an ailing elder sister who lives with them. For these and many other families in this punishing metropolis, Pranjal Surve has a simple solution: a day care centre for the elderly.

A creche for the elderly offers a way out for harried families

Not to be mistaken for a regular old age home, AgeNurture Nest Foundation, is more like a creche for the elderly and the infirm. Open 24/7, families can leave and pick up their elders any time, or even leave them for 24 hours or a 3-month stay, for a fee that ranges between ₹1200-1500 a day. The guests are provided 8 vegetarian meals including snacks throughout the day; there are attendants who bathe/sponge them, massage them or make them exercise if needed. There’s also a doctor on call at all times for medical emergencies.

The guests at this modest 8-bedded centre at Andheri had come from as far as Thane and Vasai the day this reporter visited the facility. One of them, who only wanted to be identified as B Jhaveri sat facing the busy road, a pack of cards by his side for anyone who may be keen on a game. The 71- year- old said that following a leg injury a few months ago he had become prone to spells of dizziness. With both his son and daughter-in-law busy at their work, it became difficult for his wife to handle him. His family brought him to this Centre three months ago and now thanks to the exercise regimen and the diet he followed here, his giddy spells have gone. His wife, he said, came to meet him every day and his son would drop in too. Once he recovered fully, he would go home, which, he points out, is just a few buildings away.

Jhaveri considers Pranjal Surve who started the centre, her husband, and the staff, as his second family. “They ask you to tell them your difficulties, they tell you what you should and what not to eat.”

Surve, who worked at several private hospitals in an administrative capacity, says the idea for such a place for the elderly came to her when she realised that ailing seniors needed a centre where they could be looked after during the day, when the younger family members were away at work. Since starting the centre in January this year, she has found that most guests stay between one month and three months. They are brought in by families who find it increasingly difficult to handle the slow and challenging task of making elders recoup after a major illness.

Shobhanaben for instance, was all set to undertake a pilgrimage to Mt Abu when she had a nasty fall. After the wound healed, the 76-year-old found herself unable to walk. “My son is really nice; but he would insist that I walk on my own, without any support, let alone a wheelchair,’’ she says. He left her with Surve, giving her three months to make his mother walk. It’s been a little more than a month, and Shobhanaben is already walking slowly with the help of a walker. She visits the Jain derasar nearby on a wheelchair with an attendant. Her two daughters visit her every day; her son and grandchildren are frequent visitors too. But the old lady worries about when she’ll be able to walk normally and go home. “My roommate though is worse off and when we talk, we share our pains and difficulties, and that helps,” adds Shobhanaben.

“We have no age bar,” says Surve, recalling a 42-year-old guest whose family cut off ties because she had eloped. Severely diabetic, and battling a severely infected leg, she was left in Surve’s care by her brother. She recovered within a month but died soon after as none of her family was willing to take care of her in the long term.

Surve’s project which is privately-funded, may soon be replicated. The Maharashtra government has recently announced that it would be opening two day care centres for the elderly in Mumbai.