Aging in place is when a person lives and ages in the residence of their choosing, usually their home, for as long as they are able. The choice to age in place involves planning for current and future needs, both physical and financial.
Aging in place is when a person lives and ages in the residence of their choosing, usually their home, for as long as they are able. The choice to age in place involves planning for current and future needs, both physical and financial.
A person who wants to age in place may need home modifications such as wider doorways or a ramp to make way for mobility products. A personal care aide or home health aide may be needed to help with bathing and dressing or medication management.
Home medical equipment dealers can make recommendations for home safety or join the home modification industry to help their clients age in place successfully. Home health agencies play a key role in aging in place by proving the care and companionship a person may need to successfully stay home.
What is Aging in Place?
Aging in place means a person making a conscious decision to stay in the inhabitation of their choice for as long as they can with the comforts that are important to them. As they age these may include adding supplementary services to facilitate their living conditions and maintain their quality of life.
Aging in place refers to a person in their golden years when they can live in the residence of their preference and are still able to access the things they require and used to in their daily life.
Some people may confuse the issue by thinking that aging in place will fix the things that they may have or problems that may arise. Aging in place can only address those problems that have already been planned for in the person’s life. Aging in place challenges refers to the health, social and emotional needs an elderly person may need and such needs that can be addressed to help them maintain a well-rounded life, in the residence of their choice.
When to Start Planning
Aging in place means a person being able to live in the place of their choice without losing their quality of life when they reach senior age. But ideally what aging in place should be addressing is not just to maintain the quality of life that the person is used to, but also to make it better whenever possible.
To live out later years as comfortably as possible, financial and economical plans should be put in place from your earliest working years. Aging in place though it refers to persons of retirement age should concern everyone as soon as possible from their earliest years of one’s career. Plans for retirement should thus be created as early as possible from your younger years and changed, revised, adjusted according to changing needs and requirements.
Challenges
Aging changes everyone. No matter how fit we are and how much we take care of our bodies, eat right, exercise and keep our minds well trained and souls happy with mindfulness and being grateful, aging changes us despite all this.
Realistically we are looking at certain inevitable physical, mental and emotional changes. Not all of them need be negative. For instance, some aging changes can be highly beneficial, like learning to be more patient and tolerant as opposed to impatience and rudeness in our younger years. What is undeniable is our bodies and our mental capacities do change irrevocably. Some of the subtle and not so obvious changes usually include some of the following:
These changes are inevitable, whether you get some of them at 50 or do not experience any until after you hit 70. Planning for your future residence with these in mind means you will be better prepared to combat any challenges that may be thrown at you due to these changes that come with time. Aging in place well means planning in advance for any future changes.
These physical, mental, and emotional changes affect the daily life of seniors. We can see the way they affect them in their daily activities. Collectively we call them ADL or Activities of Daily Living.
Some common examples of ADL may include the following:
Aging in place often factors in these everyday activities and how one would meet them in later years, with possibly some added physical complications like poorer eyesight or loss of hearing or how a physical condition like diabetes or cardiac problem complicates even seemingly everyday activities, such a gardening or lifting heavy things when cleaning the house.
Many seniors who age in place at home live alone without family nearby. Watch the video below with SeniorLiving.org Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Hoyt, and Attorney Eric Olsen to learn about financial and social help available to older adults living on their own.
The Importance of Aging in Place
At present, many senior persons +65 or older live either with their spouse or by themselves in their own homes. A majority of them have issues with everyday tasks, taking care of their health, doing everyday activities even within their homes. As a consequence, the quality of life for many has suffered.
In 2000, there were just over 35 million American citizens aged 65 or older. By 2030, according to the US Census Board, there will be about 70 million Americans aged 65 or older. Which would make this age group almost 20% of the total US population.
The social, economical, physical, emotional, not to mention the medical challenges the rise of this aging population places on the fabric of our civic society is enormous. If going forward, successive governments in the federal and state levels do not figure out a way to handle the upcoming challenges ushered in by the aging population, the US will be facing a major dire predicament due to insufficient, misplaced or underused resources to address aging challenges. This in turn affects how well aging in place measures can be implemented in society.
What it Means to Me and My Family?
More personal challenges and changes typically include redecorating existing homes for easier accessibility, or even moving to a smaller, easier to maintain home and garden. Setting aside some time to live a more balanced life, dealing with home and work issues, and managing stress in a more composed way. Deciding the level of aging in place choices one wants, requires and can be the best suited – either independent houses and flats, individual housing but in senior communities, care homes but with minimal assistance, the choices are many and varied to suit all needs, tastes and budgets.
What is important is one needs to make a list of what is of utmost importance to them and be honest about what they can and cannot do, put up with and afford. Aging in place means you will ultimately need to ask yourselves some hard questions:
Aging in place well means you plan out your future years before it becomes urgent and life changing. It requires one to provision for and make choices and preferences clear to family and friends. Aging in place does not mean that you need to do everything yourself. You can choose to do as little or as much as you want, can, and are capable of. Resources and technology, such as medical alert systems, allow seniors to live at home safely for a much longer period of time.
And far from being a distant phenomenon one's needs to think of in their later years, aging in place is something most of us need to think about and provision for as early as we can.
Witt, Scott and Hoyt, Jeff. “Aging in Place – What Does Aging In Place Really Mean?” SeniorLiving.org, Updated November 1, 2022, https://www.seniorliving.org/aging-in-place/.
Home Health Care provides skilled health care services wherever you call home. Our HomeHealth team works collaboratively with you, your family, and your doctor to help you recover from illness, surgery, or injury, regain your independence, and become as self-sufficient as possible.
• Improve your outcome;
• Regain your independence;
• Become as self-sufficient as possible;
• Maintain or improve your current condition or level of function;
• Slow any decline in your health status.
You’ll receive the services you need based on an individual plan of care developed by your doctor with our clinical team. Some of the home health care services we offer include:
• Skilled nursing care
• Home health aides
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech therapy
• Medical social work
• Pain management
• Medication management
• Wound care
• Infusion therapy
• Diabetes monitoring
• Ostomy care
• Continence Nursing
You or a loved one may benefit from home health care if you:
• Have a chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease or COPD
• Are recovering from surgery, hospitalization or illness
• Need help to get out of the house
• Frequently visit your doctor or the hospital
• Need education to manage your condition effectively
• Are at risk of severe illness due to COVID-19 (age 65+ or any age with an underlying condition)
You may be eligible to receive home health care under the Medicare benefit if:
• Your doctor prescribes and orders home health care for you.
• You need either skilled nursing care or therapy (physical/occupational/speech therapy) onan intermittent basis.
• Your condition limits your ability to leave home, rendering you “homebound.”
Absolutely, and we’d be honored to care for you or your loved one. Federal law gives patients the freedom to choose their health care provider.
A nurse or therapist will contact you by phone to schedule the first visit. If you’re coming from a hospital or nursing facility, the initial visit will usually happen within 24 hours after you’re discharged to make the transition easier.
On the first visit, a nurse or therapist will conduct a thorough interview and professional assessment. Our assessment identifies areas where you may benefit from education and tools to manage your health.
We partner with your doctor, as well as family and caregivers to determine the best services for your needs. This team approach actively engages you and your caregivers in your health care and, if applicable, helps to make the transition from a hospital or nursing facility to your home much easier.
The frequency and type of home health visits are based on your personal plan of care. Your doctor may change your plan of care as necessary, increasing or decreasing the number of visits or services provided, in order to provide you with the best home health care for your needs.
During each visit, home health care staff will:
• Ask about your pain and work to help you manage it
• Ask you about your health and symptoms
• Check your vital signs
• Coordinate your care and communicate with you, your provider and any other care provider
• Help with your medications and teach you and your family more about them
• Provide skilled nursing, therapy and home health aide services, as needed
• Teach you how to safely take care of yourself to remain in your home.
Medicare pays 100% of the cost of home health care services for eligible patients. Your state’s Medicaid program or your private insurance may also cover home health care.
Home health care is usually less expensive and as effective as care in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. Medicare pays 100% of the cost of home health care services for eligible patients. Your state’s Medicaid program, the VA, private pay, private insurance pay or waiver programs may also cover qualified home health care. Our team will work with you to determine your eligibility and level of coverage.
After we receive a referral, a skilled clinician will come to your home and determine, based on your insurance, whether you qualify. Some, but not all, insurance requires that you are homebound to receive home care services.
Homebound means your condition is such that:
• You’re normally unable to safely leave your home without help from others and the aid of assistive devices (such as crutches, canes, walkers or wheelchairs).
• Leaving home would require considerable and taxing effort. You can generally leave home as often as you need for medical treatment that cannot be provided in the home and still be considered homebound.
• You’re also allowed brief absences from the home for some non-medical reasons, such as an occasional trip to the barber or beauty shop, to attend church, or for unique family events (like a graduation or wedding). Such trips must be infrequent and require a considerable and taxing effort.
You can receive services wherever you call home.
Your residence is wherever you call home. This may be your house, an apartment, a relative’s home, a senior community, or some other type of residence. However, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities may not be considered a “home,” which would mean we cannot provide home health services in those settings.
Based on your needs and insurance coverage, your doctor and home health clinician will determine how often your home health care staff will visit you.
Your doctor will determine the number of visits you receive, how often the visits should occur and how long they should last, based on your needs and health status.
No. Hospitalization is not a requirement to receive home health care. Many patients are referred by their doctor.
• Home health care staff in the home 24 hours per day
• Cleaning or personal care if these are the only care you need
• Household services such as shopping, cleaning and laundry when they are not related to your care plan.
We thoroughly screen and train our home health team members. Patient care staff have professional licenses and certifications that are applicable to their role. We also perform background checks and require several personal and professional references. Once hired, Careco Medical employees continue honing their skills through an extensive orientation process and ongoing training programs.
Home health care provides skilled clinical treatment for an illness or injury, with the goal of helping you recover and regain your independence. Home health care can also help you manage a chronic condition like heart disease, COPD or diabetes. Additionally, home health care can sometimes include certain personal care services, like help bathing and dressing, as part of the plan of care ordered by your doctor.
Personal home care services include help with bathing, dressing, meal preparation or your normal activities of daily living to remain independent within your home.
Hospice care provides compassionate, supportive care and comfort for those who are facing a terminal illness. It offers medical, social, psychological, bereavement and spiritual services that support a patient and their loved ones.
Yes. Our home health care center is Medicare-certified. This is a requirement for Medicare to cover the cost of home health services.
CareCo Medial covers New London County and many towns in Windhman and Middlesex Counties.