Craving crepes in Paris or beignets in New Orleans? Dreaming of lounging on the beaches of Hawaii or perhaps visiting Pearl Harbor? For some, this may seem like impossibility, however, it doesn’t have to be any longer.
Traveling can be an intimidating and stressful feat for anyone, especially for the geriatric community. With incontinence, wheelchairs and other vital medical equipment in tow, many elders are deterred from participating in travel adventures and visiting destinations they’ve always dreamt of seeing.
There is a large portion of the elderly population that still has a passion for travel but can’t imagine it can logistically happen.
Silver Wings is able to make these trips a reality. Whether being reunited with a friend or family member that they haven’t seen in decades, visiting an exotic destination that has been on their bucket list forever or simply returning to a favorite vacation spot, travelers are able to plan and participate on any trip they can imagine.
Your elderly loved ones can enjoy safe, luxurious travel with our Special Needs Travel services. Here’s how those services work and what they can do for you and your family.
What Are Special Needs Travel Services?
Traveling can be an intimidating and stressful feat for anyone, especially for those with special needs. Just trying to keep track of medical equipment, wheelchairs, medications and passports can be a challenge that can be too much for any individual or family member to handle. However, this should never stop anyone from traveling the world!
Silver Wings can help clients travel the world safely, securely and stress-free. We are fully insured and bonded and have certified staff members that are able to handle a wide range of client’s needs from transferring assists, medication management and personal care to more complex cases requiring nurses and physicians. There is absolutely no medical restriction that we cannot handle. We ensure that all accommodations are handicap accessible and always have an International Care Manager on the trip that is able to handle any emergency that may arise.
What Special Needs Travel Services Do You Provide?
We are fully licensed to sell travel. We make all the travel and lodging arrangements for our Special Needs Travel clients and maintain complete control over the transportation and care of our clients while en route and on tour.
We have certified staff that is able to handle a wide range of client’s needs from transferring assistance, medication management and personal care to more complex cases including skilled nursing and oncology. We often accommodate special diets, ensure the trip has handicap accessible amenities and have staff that is able to handle any emergency that may arise. There are virtually no medical restrictions that we cannot handle!
Along with a 1:1 client to companion ratio throughout the trip, we partner with world-class medical providers that can be at our aid no matter where we may be. In addition to local nurses and doctors, our international partners utilize local caregivers as it is fascinating to see how different cultures cherish the elderly population in different ways. We love to immerse clients into the culture as much as we can.
Where can you help me travel to?
Silver Wings is able to assist clients with many different types of travel services including:
- Luxury Vacations
- Luxury Respite Travel
- Family Reunions & Events
- Medical Travel
- Transitional Moves
- Bucket List Destinations
Luxury and medical destinations have included France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Hawaii, Key West and many more. There have been JFK history trips to Boston, Dallas and Cape Cod. There have been holiday cruises that allow a larger group of clients to travel together and escape from what can often be a depressing holiday season. This upcoming year we already have trips planned to northern Europe, Alaska, Israel and Central America along with a WWII trip for veterans to Normandy.
We recently had clients that spent three months living in Monaco and they didn’t want to come home! While staying in a private villa in the French Riviera, the clients went through our “wellness boot camp” and came back home feeling better than ever. They had meals prepared by a personal chef, exercise and stretching sessions with personal trainers multiple times per week and enjoyed unique excursions and sightseeing adventures guided by local historians.
One of our most memorable and moving trips was reuniting a client with her family in the small town of Flers, in Normandy France. Having been split up during WWII and placed in an orphanage, the client and her siblings lost contact with each other over the years. Our client had moved to the United States in the 1960’s. We helped facilitate an emotional reunion between our client and her brother and sisters. Word spread and additional family members came from all over France to be part of the celebration and to spend time with the reunited siblings. It was a beautiful event to witness and be part of. Everybody was laughing and crying including the care givers.
Can you Help With Honor Flights?
The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization that honors America’s veterans for their wartime sacrifices. They transport veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at the memorials for the wars in which they served our country.
Currently, priority for these flights is given to senior veterans, who are typically World War II survivors, as well as to other veterans who are terminally ill. Silver Wings can help by arranging Honor Flights as well as by providing professional caregiver travel companions for the veterans on these journeys. It is a cherished honor for us when we have the privilege to do so.
What Are The Benefits Of Special Needs Travel?
Not only are these trips amazing in the moment, but what it does for a person’s outlook on life is incredible. Clients have something to look forward to, something to prepare for, and something talk about afterwards. We sometimes organize language lessons as well as history and culture discussions prior to the trip. There is also typically a “Bon Voyage” party so travelers can get to know one another before the departure date. And upon their return, clients have pictures and a DVD to remember the trip and show their friends and family members.
We work in partnership with the client’s healthcare teams both home and abroad. We receive encouragement and support from their medical doctors, psychiatric care providers, care managers, guardians, and families. We have helped guardians prepare petitions for wards, all of which have all been approved. This has allowed all kinds of travelers, even travelers with dementia to experience the world.