Aging in Place
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-09-30/aging-place
A growing number of retiring Washingtonians are opting to stay in their own homes and "age in place" rather than move to senior communities. And the number of organizations created to help them stay put is exploding. We'll learn more about the challenges of choosing to remain independent and the resources that are available.
Guests
Andy Mollison
President, Palisades Village
Miriam Kelty
Lead Coordinator, Bannockburn Neighbors Assisting Neighbors
Virginia Hodgkinson
President, Mount Vernon at Home
Elinor Ginzler
Senior Vice President for Livable Communities Strategies, AARP
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The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) believes that occupational therapy practitioners have the skills to evaluate a person’s overall ability to operate a vehicle safely and provide rehabilitation, if necessary.
Older Driver Safety Awareness Week (December 6–10, 2010) aims to promote understanding of the importance of mobility and transportation to ensuring older adults remain active in the community—shopping, working or volunteering—with the confidence that transportation will not be the barrier to strand them at home.
Listeners can find out more about productive aging as well as driving tips for seniors at www.aota.org.
For people considering "aging-in-place" may find it help to work with a certified geriatric care manager. Working with a care manager who will work-out an action plan is trained to recommend resources that may otherwise remain out-of-reach. For example, there's a big movement underway with technology that can monitor falls, medication management, wandering (if an issue) and other issues that seniors face who choose to age-in-place.
Contact the National Association of Professional Geriatric Caremanagers for a local certified caremanager -- www.caremanager.org.
Aging-in-place should be a matter of CHOICE of place which may or not be a person's original home.
The National Association of Home Builders educates remodelers about remodeling homes for aging-in-place. Remodelers (and others) can earn the Certified Aging-In-Place designation that provides resources on design solutions, marketing, and best practices for working with clients to assess and meet their needs. We have information on CAPS and aging-in-place on our website at www.nahb.org/aginginplace. In fact, consumers can search there by zipcode to find a CAPS trained remodeler.
NAHB also presents a design award for best CAPS remodels. More info at www.nahb.org/homesforlife. The 2010 winners were just granted for a whole house and a bathroom remodel that improved comfort, beauty and functionality of the homes.
Capitol Hill Village also has a wonderful -aging in place group. What do these guests to with...yes, memory loss neighbors- no they can stay at home...but, must have - some of them- round the clock caretakers...any ideas...some can't afford around the clock...any ideas? One friend tells me to find an "undocumented worker"....Hmmmmm
I'm 64 and a volunteer for Palisades Village. What an enriching experience! Fascinating people! I'm teetering on the brink of "old" and as I think of my future, I feel I have learned a good deal about how open and interesting the frail elderly can be. Similarly, since I've been working from home I've been entertained and enriched by the neighborhood children, retirees and other work at home folks--the daytime community I knew nothing about when I was going to an office every day. Life is good. Across the age spectrum.
Builders of homes might keep in mind that their homes can be more useful for aging in place if they are on one level or if they have elevators or moving chairs for stairs. Walking stairs is one of the greatest obstacles for many as they age, but so many young people would treasure the ability of going from one level to another with that kind of aid when they are temporarily or permanently disabled. Builders need to be more involved in this movement to age in place.
This was a great show. It helps us see the passion folks have for their own homes.
I called in to say that Aging in Place does not need to be in a home you where you have lived for many years. It may be a place you CHOOSE to live later in life. Aging in Place should mean NOT FORCED to move due to an expectable health event. That is what people really want. The villages play an important part.
To make that a reality we need a more robust Aging in Place system of coordinated, cooperative and comprehensive services managed dynamically for an efficient and economical flow of services. I have described this in Aging in Place 2.0, a MetLife Mature Market Institute report available at http://www.metlife.com/mmi/index.html?WT.ac=GN_mm. We need more discussion on this topic. Some is available at http://www.louistenenbaum.com/.