Errands with the Elderly: A Caregiver’s Conundrum

Caregivers of the elderly with significant mobility and memory challenges know.

It’s not easy getting out of the house to run errands.

Family Caregivers’ Negative Attitudes Toward Running Errands in Households

The isolation felt by elderly and caregivers is one side of the coin, because engagement with people, places, and things outside your home can help you feel less isolated.

As aging-related decline in the body and mind make running everyday errands more challenging - it takes a toll on both the elderly person who needs more assistance - as well as the caregiver who needs to spend more time caring for the elderly person at home.

What Takes the Most Effort When Caregivers Run Errands?

Running errands requires both planning ahead and actually doing it.

Planning and doing are both easy for “the average adult” (the caregiver, in this case).

Planning ahead, when an elderly person is involved, is a little more difficult. You need to consider the logistics of transportation, medication, and other accommodations.

Running errands, when an elderly person is involved, is much more difficult. You actually need to carry out all the logistics from start to finish.

Unit Economics of Errands with the Elderly

No matter how you look at it, “the average adult” has an easier time running errands than “the elderly person with aging-related challenges”.

Mobility challenges make getting your body to run the errands more difficult.

Neurological challenges make getting your mind around how to run errands more difficult.

For the average adult:

• Planning the Errands: Easy (1 Unit of Effort)
• Running the Errands: Easy (1 Unit of Effort)

For the elderly with aging-related challenges

• Planning the Errands: Moderate (2 Units of Effort)
• Running the Errands: Difficult (4 Units of Effort)

If the average adult uses just 1 Unit of Effort to plan out errands, and just 1 Unit of Effort run the errands, it makes it easier to demonstrate how the Effort required to run errands with an elderly person adds up.

• “The average adult” can easily plan and do a day trip with just 2 units of work - pretty easy.
• Planning to bring the elderly person on the day trip takes 3 times more work than planning a day trip for oneself as an able-bodied caregiver.
• Actually bringing the elderly person the day trip takes 5 times more work than the caregiver just going on the day trip alone.
• Altogether, a day trip with an elderly family member with mobility and memory challenges takes 8 times more work than a day trip with the caregiver alone.

Brining your elderly family member to run errends takes more effort. What will you choose?

Will you go on the errand alone, and leave your elderly family member at home?

Or will you bring your elderly family member with you, despite all the extra effort it takes?

Taking care of an elderly family member can be challenging, especially when it comes to running errands. Common aging-related decline can make running errands less frequent, leading to greater isolation and dependence on others. The simple act of getting out of the house can become a complex task for caregivers of elderly people, who are trapped in a conundrum of “a quick and easy trip to the store by yourself” or “a high-effort logistical plan with the elderly person you care for by your side”.

This is the decision-making criteria a caregiver has to live with.

Can you see this Caregiver Catch 22? It’s so much easier just to leave dad in his chair all day, and leaving dad in his chair all day doesn’t get him the exercise or social interaction a human being needs.