Aging in Place is the Best Long Term Care Strategy

Not the only. Not for everyone. Just the best. 

by Louis Tenenbaum

We have been promoting Aging in Place as a thing unto itself, when it is really the most scalable, desirable and economical Long Term Care (LTC) strategy. We have also been looking for a better way to say it then “aging in place”. I propose Long Term Care at Home. 

News accounts lament the lack of planning and saving among adults. No one plans to move into assisted living or a nursing home. Those are the only LTC strategies most people know about.*  Financial planners and long term care sales people don’t even talk about where you are going to live. I don’t know if it is because they don’t know, don’t care or do know that talking about assisted living and nursing homes takes the discussion where no one wants to go, ruining the sale. Smart people don’t buy something they don’t want, so what may look like burying heads in the sand is really a wise consumer decision. “I don’t see anything I want. I am not going to buy.”

One benefit of planning is increasing the odds of things going well. The flip side is reducing odds of things going poorly.   You plan a vacation or a party so it is pleasant and limit the chance things will go astray. Retirement/ Financial/ Long Term Care Planning should be the same. Not just the money to travel but real strategies to avoid nursing homes. Health has a role. So does your home.

1.  Updating your home make it more pleasant, a better match for your current taste and activities.
2. Long Term care at Home means the ability to get the care you need in the residence you choose. You own the venue. You control what happens there.  The folks who own assisted living make the rules. Plan to live at your house. You make the rules. You maintain control.
3. A well prepared home helps avoid injury, one reason people are forced to move to traditional LTC.
4. A well prepared home is the most pleasant and most economical place to recover from accident or illness.
5. A well prepared home makes it easier for family and informal support-  the most important source of care – to contribute.
6. Long Term Care at Home allows paid care to be used selectively. Various services can be ramped up or withdrawn to match changing needs, rather than ‘in the package’ of assisted living or nursing homes. Custom, ‘Just in Time’, more economical use of resources
7. An energy efficient home shields fixed income homeowners from rising energy costs.

Long Term care at Home requires being aware and making plans. That is not a hard sell if it is presented in the right context…Long Term Care at Home is a desirable long term care strategy. All  retirement, financial and long term care planning should include the at Home living strategy. Long Term Care at Home is something to look forward to. Let the planning begin!

* or can afford…some find Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) desirable but they are very expensive. 

Source: http://www.louistenenbaum.com/aging-in-place-is-the-best-long-term-care-strategy/ 

By Louis Tenenbaum, the nation's leading authority on Aging in Place. He has years of experience helping individual families, builders, developers and communities set the stage for folks to remain safe and comfortable in their own homes. 

Starlight Caregivers