Idea 346 of 500. Cluster 17: Health, care and the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
Dementia day-care centres, which hardly exist yet and are needed everywhere
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
Visit the clinic at the nearest hospital that sees older patients and ask the nurse in charge how many families ask where their parent could spend the day. Then ask 10 of those families, or families you know, whether they would pay a daily fee for a safe, supervised day with lunch, 3 days a week. Rent nothing yet: a list of names and a price they accepted is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A family where one adult has given up work to stay home with a parent with memory loss, and a child abroad would pay to give those days back.
- What leaves today
- Family members now leave jobs, or the island, to cover care alone; a day centre turns that lost income into paid, trained local work.
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
- 341Home-care agencies with trained, vetted carers, booked and paid from abroad
- 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
- 347Physiotherapy at home for the elderly, subscription-priced
Idea 346 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.