Concerned about caring for the old at home, Elina Dutta, founder, Tribeca Care, is showing others a new direction.

Getting older is hard any day. More so, when all you need is a phone call from your daughter, settled in another country, to enquire about your day or some five minutes of undivided attention from your son living in the same city, but with a maddening work schedule. Taking care of ageing parents from a distance is never easy. The helplessness and guilt of not being around when they need you has troubled most of us at some point of time.

It was a similar sentiment that bothered Elina Dutta, 55, former national creative director with 25 years of experience at advertising agencies like Lowe Lintas, JWT and Ogilvy, for long after her mother's death. Tied-up with work deadlines, she could hardly take out time to come visit her mother in Kolkata. The hurt of not being able to spend sufficient time with her stayed with Dutta, settled in Dubai with her family, and often troubled her. So much that it inspired her to launch a healthcare start-up Tribeca Care in 2013, to take care of lonely parents back at home, along with four other NRI friends with similar personal experiences, settled in the US and UK, and employed as doctors and bankers.

Caregiver Elina Dutta.

SUPPORTING THE ELDERLY
Focused on taking care of the parents in their 60s, 70s and beyond, who have children with all the money in the world to send across to them but not the privilege of being physically around, Tribeca Care tries to fill that void. Operational only in Kolkata currently, the platform is a one-stop home healthcare company that delivers personalised attention ranging from doctor on call, help with hospitalisation and ambulance, emotional support, nursing care, medicines delivered at home and care managers when required. "I believe that when you are old, you must have the dignity of attention. When it comes to our parents, who are lonely and need help, why should they be abandoned and sent to old age homes, when they can be looked after and given emotional support within the comfort of their own homes," says soft-spoken Dutta, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Tribeca Care, who shuttles between Dubai and Kolkata. With 36 employees, tie-up with 27 hospitals and 90,000 bedside visits annually since the launch, the platform has created an eco-system of its own to help and nurture the elderly.

DELVING INTO THE NETWORK
Self-funded by five partners, including Dutta, Tribeca Care aims to serve both the elderly and the ailing. "We are not an NGO but a social enterprise with a professionally managed business model and moderate amount of charge for the services offered," says Dutta. With a membership fee of `5,500 per month for taking the service, the caregivers are trained with help from geriatric associations. Stressing that they are like relationship care managers with one fixed point contact for every parent, Dutta says, "The needs of someone who is 60 are different from an 80-year-old. We ensure that our relationship managers understand that and are trained accordingly to pick up the non-verbal cues of the parent under their care."

THE ROAD AHEAD
By the end of 2016, Tribeca Care plans to expand its base to metros including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Highlighting that they are an organisation and not a kitchen operation, Dutta says, "We are not doing it only to sell it. We partners are trying to bring to the table our experience and expertise through this sound business model. Also, because all of us genuinely believe that there needs to be a system that offers emotional and psychological support besides medical facilities to parents who are old and dependent." Question her on one suggestion she would like to give those with old parents at home, and she says, parents are not going to be there forever, so make that call right now which you may have been postponing.