According to National Center for Biotechnology Information “India had more than 91.6 million elderly in 2010 with an annual addition of 2.5 million elderly between 2005 and 2010. The number of elderly in India is projected to reach 158.7 million in 2025 and is expected, by 2050, to surpass the population of children below 14 years.”

ElderAid Wellness promises to provide comprehensive, all-inclusive elder care and support with quality and compassion.

According to National Center for Biotechnology Information "A few important characteristics of the elderly population in India are noteworthy. Of the 7.5% of the population who are elderly, two-thirds live in villages and nearly half are of poor socioeconomic status (SES). Half of the Indian elderly are dependents, often due to widowhood, divorce, or separation, and a majority of the elderly are women (70%). Of the minority (2.4%) of the elderly living alone, more are women (3.49%) than men (1.42%). Thus, the majority of elderly reside in rural areas, belong to low SES and are dependent upon their families."

More about ElderAid Wellness

ElderAid Wellness began in the year 2015. Their main objective was to be a proxy child for the elders so that they don't feel unsupported when the children are not with them. ElderAid Wellness did not want to make their children guilty about it as they have the right to live their own life and wanted to maintain peace and harmony on both sides. Additionally, providing home services was decided to be given to the elders so that they would stay healthy in their homes as long as it could be possible.

Covid was interesting for ElderAid Wellness as it helped them to grow significantly. In the first week of the pandemic, ElderAid Wellness got over 600 calls from around the globe including panicked children and adults. Luckily there was availability of elder aids and ElderAid Wellness Families were care managers. Moreover ElderAid Wellness had police permits, so they were focusing immensely on delivering medicines and essentials irrespective of whether they were ElderAid Wellness regular customers or not which was an act of generosity from ElderAid Wellness end. So ElderAid Wellness flourished massively during Covid as a business.

Effects of Covid on elderly population

ElderAid Wellness provides holistic services to elders. They also offer concur support, errands, man friday or girl friday support. In the first wave of the pandemic there was a huge scramble for essentials such as groceries, medicines and provisions. 

The second wave of Covid was more about people facing psychological and emotional issues because they were stuck within the walls of their apartment for a year. Elder Aid Wellness is in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Mysore and Palakkad which is a total of 8 cities. 

ElderAid Wellness firmly believes that age is a number and their motto is “Live life fully”. Vandana Nadig Nair ,the Co-Founder and Director of ElderAid Wellness states“Just because you can't move like you used to do earlier, it doesn't mean you can't dance anymore. We began online events to engage elders in small and large groups both in which we conducted Antakshari, cultural shows and cooking classes for them. We have recently started a new service called Care Sathi in which a young person who is passionate about Elder care earns some pocket money for spending some time with the elders doing activities like playing board games, watching a movie, reading with the elderly who have lost vision etc.”

USP of ElderAid Wellness

ElderAid Wellness is a one stop shop for all elder needs. Anything that an elder needs, all they need to do is call their care manager and they will get it done for them, such seamless experience is provided by them. The care manager is the heartbeat of the company as he is like the key relationship manager which makes a difference in elders' life physically and virtually both. Elder care is all about trust between the children and elders and it comes when you take onus of them in their presence and absence. 

Challenges of ElderAid Wellness

There were plenty of challenges faced by Elder Aid Wellness. The macro challenge faced was socio-cultural. 

Vandana Nadig Nair ,the Co-Founder and Director of ElderAid Wellness states“Bring your parents to me when they are well so that they get comfortable with us and when things go south because elders are fragile, I will be around incase something happens. One of the most critical services is of a non clinical caretaker. They want a  full time person living with them. We are doing this for free. We have whatsapp training, Classroom training in 5 to 6 languages.Talent, staffing and awareness are the three problems ElderAid Wellness faces.

Customer base of ElderAid Wellness

ElderAid Wellness served over 2000 customers and Touched over 5000 customers through wellness and engagement.

 Future plans and goals of ElderAid Wellness

ElderAid Wellness is looking forward for stabilizing the 8 cities and towns in which ElderAid Wellness is present.

(Edited by Elvis Almeida)