Are you a Baby Boomer? There’s a good chance you have living parents and are assisting them in some way; you also know this will increase.

How do you balance all of your responsibilities and stay healthy? Consider the statements below and see how many reflect your life:

• Raising a family
• Funding post secondary education
• Building your own career
• Contemplating or actively planning for retirement
• Caregiving for grandchildren
• Caregiving for aging parents; physically, emotionally or financially
• Running your own business
• Modifying your work hours to manage parent care
• Dealing with siblings or other family members with parent care challenges
• Not having enough time for self care, or for your partner
• Looking to downsize or transition to less responsibilities at home or work

If these sound familiar then you have joined the ranks of the sandwich generation or even Club Sandwich generation.

The key to surviving, managing and thriving with your health and relationships intact is meaningful planning and communication. By addressing Parent Care issues proactively you increase the choice, flexibility and independence your parents and your family will experience in Aging Well. You can treat this like a dress rehearsal for your personal planning for Aging Well.

Everyone is aware of current the shortfall in resources; human, financial and supportive living environments. Dr Anne Doig of the Canadian Medical Association says that Canadians need to speak up now as to how they want Senior care supported in the future. This means determining costs and how we are going to fund those costs, whether it is public, private or a combination of the two. The alternative of “doing nothing” will create a crisis in senior care due to the sheer numbers of Boomers.

We need to determine IN ADVANCE how and where we want to age and take the appropriate steps to support this happening.

As individuals we can influence what our own needs will look like by taking care of our health and doing the critical work of discussing and planning for future health changes. Our health will impact where we live, who provides care, how we will fund that care and what resources we will need to access to remain independent. Planning financially for care needs starts now with opportunities to ensure funding is available with innovative strategies not available in advanced age or ill health. Finally, legal documents need to be in place for NOW (while you are living) and following your death. Writing and signing documents is a great first step, but the bulk of the work comes from personal reflection about your values, wishes and goals and then applying those to your life situation. The final step requires in-depth conversations with your family to provided direction for your wishes and remove the burden of uncertainty or unknown decisions. Families want to make the right decisions, ease their struggle by allowing them to honor the ones you have already told them. In the case of unknown or uncertain wishes, research has shown there is only a 50/50 chance they will guess correctly. Why leave this burden to people you love…. give them the Gift of Planning instead.