Whether it’s you or someone you love, growing older means dealing with changes in health that can render daily living more complex. And if aging in place at home is one of your primary goals, it could still be difficult and scary to discuss what to do to reach that goal.
Health and aging mean dealing with new information, new specialists, more appointments and medications. These pile onto existing worries, including home maintenance, personal mobility, care of or by a spouse, and paying your bills. You want to stay in your home, but you’re not sure how you can make it work and still be safe.
You’re not alone in dealing with the struggle, and there are resources available to you. The first step is to plan and to form a strategy based on the services you need now—and as your circumstances change. This is exactly what we deliver in our Aging Life Care Services.
Advocacy for seniors, and those who have special medical needs, has become increasingly important in our society with so many aging loved ones. As per Population Reference Bureau: “Today, 40 million people in the United States are ages 65 and older, but this number is projected to more than double to 89 million by 2050.” More of us are older and more of us want to stay in our home, so gaining help to navigate the needs and services available has become critical.
If it seems daunting to create your age-in-place plan, there is help. A Home Health Companions Aging Life CareTM professional (also called a geriatric care manager) works with you and your family to make sense of all the moving parts of both the medical and personal care you need.
Here, we’ll explore why aging at home is beneficial, and how support from an Aging Life Care professional will make it possible.
Benefits of aging in place
Your desire to age in your home is understandable. You prefer to remain where you’ve lived in other chapters of life, and with the things and amenities that are familiar. You’d like to maintain your independence and keep as active a life as you can, too.
Over at Retirement Living, they’ve highlighted the top reasons aging is place is optimal in the article “5 Benefits of Aging in Place.” The list includes personal comfort, maintaining your cognitive health, and keeping your social networks. And to this list we can add the reality that retirement communities can be problematic for the spread of diseases, because people who are already susceptible to infection live there in greater numbers.
The primary reason most people want to stay at home, however, is that it is often the most affordable option. Long-term care facilities charge sometimes astronomical monthly fees, and even assisted living runs in the thousands of dollars per month.
In contrast, by staying in your home, you could keep living costs manageable, especially if your home is paid in full. Even the monthly mortgage would be a fraction of the cost of a retirement community.
The value of an Aging Life CareTM professional
The benefits of aging in your home are many, but coordinating all the pieces of medical and personal needs as you age can be a struggle. Whether it’s you or someone you love who needs to prepare to age at home, working with an Aging Life Care professional will assure everyone involved is confident of the plan put in place.
What can an Aging Life Care Professional do for you? Over at the Aging Life Care Association, they provide a detailed description of the myriad of areas where these experts offer an objective assessment.
Here, we highlight a few:
- Medical concerns. This means they can act as a liaison with your physicians and specialists to determine the kinds of care you’ll require and how those needs can be managed at home.
- Financial concerns. This can mean help with arranging bill payments, consultations with a Power of Attorney, or connecting families to local and governmental resources.
- Family concerns. This can be a particularly challenging area, especially for families who live some distance apart. Conversations can be difficult when everyone is not heard or understood. Aging Care Professionals are skilled in working with families to help keep the focus on shared expectations and goals.
Aging Life Care Professionals walk hand-in-hand with their clients while taking a bird’s eye view of the circumstances and objectively working to tailor a specific proposal that will provide confidence for you going forward.
Oftentimes, it may take a consultation or two to chart out the communications of medical providers and other services. However, once you feel assured and understand your plan, that Aging Life Professional can step aside and come in again only as needed or when circumstances change.
At Home Health Companions, our Aging Life Care Professionals offer a seamless transition from plan to implementation. Once you’re set, other staff can step in to provide private duty nursing, personal and companion care as you need.
Aging Life Professionals help people stay at home longer, safer, and with greater quality of life. As we all continue to age, the services of these experts will be in even greater demand.
May was National Aging Life Care Month! The Aging Life Care Association and partners gathering touching stories from families who have benefited from working with Aging Life Care Professionals. You can find those stories on their Facebook page.
Bibliography:
https://www.prb.org/americas-aging-population/
https://www.retirementliving.com/5-benefits-of-aging-in-place