KOCHI: Joseph Alex, who was working with a blue-chip corporate house in Bengaluru, was driving through Pathanamthitta while on a visit to his home state Kerala. That’s when he thought of visiting his friend’s aged mother who lived nearby. What happened next changed his life.
“There was no response from inside the house despite my repeated ringing of the calling bell and bangs on the door. I tried calling my friend in Mumbai. But he was at an offshore oil rig and was unreachable. So I opened one of the windows,” he says.
Through the window, he saw the 92-year-old woman lying on the bed in a pool of urine and faeces amid flies and other insects. “Initially, I feared that she was dead. But I noticed slight body movements,” says Alex, who then broke open the door.
Though a home nurse was appointed by his friend to take care of the woman, Alex realised that the nurse used to visit only once in two days. That day when Alex visited, the home nurse had some personal matters to take care of. That was the third day she had skipped work.
The incident opened Alex’s eyes. He quit the dog-eat-dog corporate world. And within a year, in 2015, he floated Signature AgedCare, a care home for those who no longer able to live on their own due to old age, illness, or disability.
Signature AgedCare now has two facilities in Kochi — one at Chalikkavattom near Vennala with 80 beds and another at Kakkanad with 75 beds. It provides personalised nursing care, health-care, assistance to consult doctors and timely medication for the inmates. The inmates include a retired ISRO scientist, those retired as heads of departments at top colleges in Kerala, a renowned filmmaker of yesteryear and many more.
Alex says he knows each and every member by name, and their likes and dislikes.
Alex fervently believes in the motto that ‘the aged today is you, and me tomorrow’. “No one should feel guilty when admitting parents in a care home. You are going far and wide in search of a better future and career,” he says.
“I believe it would be selfish on my part to want my children to stay back to take care of me in my old age, sacrificing their career and life.” As Kerala is fast ageing, Signature AgedCare, which has taken care of more than 1,600 parents and has facilitated a peaceful, graceful and dignified death to 261, is taking another step forward. Under the title ‘Vayogen’, perhaps for the first time in the world, the care home has launched a membership programme which would allow one to pre-secure the last stages of life.
“My philosophy is to add life to the remaining days rather than just adding the days! The beauty of this plan is that you get to decide the level of treatment or care you want in the last stages of your life,” he says. The Vayogen programme is limited to 200 members.
Alex plans to use the proceeds from Vayogen membership to build a state-of-the-art building in Edakkattuvayal in Mulanthuruthy. “My philosophy is that I will repay in terms of service rather than as interest to banks,” he says.
The residents at his facilities at Chalikkavattom and Kakkanad will also be shifted to Mulanthuruthy. He plans to use the Chalikkavattom facility as a wing dedicated exclusively for its CSR initiative.
“There are people in our facilities who can’t afford the charges. Once our new building comes up, the Chalikkavattom facility will be exclusively for our CSR initiative,” he says.