Below is an excerpt from The Senior Years Master Plan.
Chapter 5
Aging in Place
The government is trying to help you stay in your home. It recognizes that keeping an older person in their home and providing services to them there is generally less expensive and taxing on the state than having them in a residential facility. To this end there are usually a menu of services available — some free, some low cost — to the elderly at the local level, providing things like meals-on-wheels, housekeeping, transportation, and so on. The services available vary from state to state but it's not uncommon for their availability and cost to depend on income, not assets. Many older people's income can be fairly small even as they draw down substantial assets to supplement that income, and many have substantial equity in their home. By not asking elders to sell their home or liquidate their assets before qualifying for assistance, they make it easier for seniors to avail themselves of the state's services, and thus stay in their home longer.
Indeed, surveys show that most people would prefer to grow old, and even die, in their own home (or residence). This desire isn't hard to understand.
Yet each of these advantages has a flip side that needs to be weighed.
Disadvantages of aging in place
The disadvantages of staying in your home aren't always given the consideration that the more appealing advantages are, so we discuss some of them here.
Sudden health declines Your aging in place plan may be going swimmingly: you've made the appropriate home modifications, you're getting the help you need, and you're doing fine. Then something happens: maybe you have a stroke, maybe you have a debilitating fall, maybe an accident, maybe a sudden-onset illness — something happens that suddenly means you need a significantly higher level of care. Now — right now — you need a different living arrangement...and because of the event you haven't the time, energy or perhaps competence to manage the transition yourself. Now you're at the mercy of "the system" and whatever help friends or family may be able to provide. That help may not be much given your distance from these people and/or your relationship with them, and they may be too old or infirm themselves to help. This situation may be manageable if one person of a couple is still able to function well — they can help to care for the sick person and/or orchestrate a move, but if both people are frail this is a crisis…
Author Bio
With a career spanning the private sector (high-tech and management consulting), public sector (police officer and law enforcement trainer), and the non-profit sector, Ralph Mroz brings a uniquely well-rounded perspective to his analysis. He has been a prolific writer and video presenter. As a baby boomer, he found he had to research many of the aspects of aging in order to plan effectively for the upcoming decades. Because there was no single resource that summed up the many aspects of aging that require planning and action, he wrote The Senior Years Master Plan which is the only resource of its kind.
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