Bereavement compounded by loneliness can veil down on one’s self reliance even for the bravest of souls in their twilight years. For instance, Palekar, after six months of soul searching since the day she lost her spouse, decided to move in to the facility of Madhur Bhav. Though she had a clumsy start, with enough encouragement from the care givers and support staff of Madhur Bhav, she embraced her new foster family. Now she engages other residents of the facility in her fitness classes to adapt healthy living. “Unlike the existing old age homes providing only food and shelter to their elders, we motivate them to rediscover the lost vigor to live through our empathetic care giving,” states Anjali Deshpande, Chairman, Madhur Bhav.

20 years back, India had no existing reforms for disease management for elders anguishing chronic geriatric conditions. But when Anjali’s father was diagnosed with dementia, he did not get the much needed medical assistance. Finding this huge gap, Anjali ideated to start an elder care facility for independent elders in support of all unmet needs, starting from companionship to medical care assistance, and thus Madhur Bhav came into existence in 2013.

Individual Care Plan
Today, Madhur Bhav is a well equipped facility which provides independent living, assisted living, post-operative care and palliative care services apart from in-home care services. Upon admission, the new residents and their family members are assisted by medical officers to sketch a personal care plan by assessing the patient’s physical and psychological needs, thus ensuring bespoke services.

The prime motive for palliative care services is to endow quality of life for terminally ill patients. Madhur Bhav is adapting curative measures with proper nursing facility and appointed doctors (physiotherapist, orthopedic and psychiatrist) for intensive elder care. In case of emergency, it has tie ups with multispecialty hospitals located around the facility and ambulance service for the residents.

Unlike the existing old-age homes providing only food and shelter to their elders, we motivate them to rediscover the lost vigor to live through our empathetic care giving

Memory Care Facility
Researchers say, with the rise in the geriatric population, the healthcare sector will encounter a major distress in managing dementia. Thus, for an expert dementia management, Madhur Bhav houses a special workforce comprising of dementia consultants, psychiatrists, personal attendants (24x7, each for two patients) and a special physician who pays quarterly visit to the facility. It also conducts therapeutic sessions (Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Pet Therapy, and others) to manage their behavioral symptoms. Anjali recalls an incident when one of the dementia patients sneaked out despite of the strict surveillance of the facility. Now, each patient carries a waist tag which beeps the sensors as soon as they cross the parameter of the facility.

Madhur Bhav takes a keen interest to its resident’s merriment by celebrating all festivities (Durga Puja, Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Christmas, and so on). Further, the social workers engage with the seniors with co-generic activities daily to relive them from boredom. Anjali adds, “Our motive is to provide our seniors with healthy, happy, secured and dignified life by creating a family environment. As the name goes ‘Madhurbhav’, we try to provide compassionate care, which can dwell in their hearts every day”.

It is gradually adapting newer modalities in the facility (like emergency call bell in the bathroom, well furnished room with TV, Freezer, Microwave, and CCTV camera) and is about to introduce a special wing for post operative recovery, palliative care, respite and hospice care. Madhur Bhav is veering to build a bigger and organized facility having separate departments to adapt each service modality to provide uncompromising customer satisfaction with transparent communication.