Idea 341 of 500. Cluster 17: Health, care and the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
Home-care agencies with trained, vetted carers, booked and paid from abroad
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
Every idea in cluster 17 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Ask three families in your area who already employ a live-in helper what they pay, what went wrong last time, and whether they would switch to a vetted carer with a named backup. Then post a short notice in a Sri Lankan association's group abroad offering one trial week of daytime care for a parent in your town, priced per day. One paid trial booking, or a list of names asking for the price, tells you there is a buyer.
- Who pays first
- A son or daughter abroad whose parent's helper has just left, who wants a vetted carer in place quickly and can pay by card from overseas.
- What leaves today
- Care money now goes to informal helpers with no record and no standard; a vetted agency turns it into a trained workforce and a local business that keeps the fees.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
Remittances and what it costs the first one to go - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions already in existence that could carry value back
More from cluster 17
- 342Assisted-living homes for the parents of Sri Lankans abroad, with the standard published and inspected
- 343A daily check-in service: a nurse's visit, a photograph, a message to the child abroad
- 344Medical escort services: a nurse takes the parent to the appointment and reports back
- 345Pharmacy delivery with the prescription managed and the refills tracked
- 346Dementia day-care centres, which hardly exist yet and are needed everywhere
- 347Physiotherapy at home for the elderly, subscription-priced
Idea 341 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.