Archive for the ‘Virtual Retirement’ Category

Is home care the way of the future?

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

In the last few days this question has come to my attention three times. The first involved the release of a report by the Met Life Mature Market Institute called Aging in Place 2.0 (AiP 2.0). For all the non-geeks and people over 50 reading this blog, the designation 2.0, as I understand it, means something like a second generation revolution. The term usually refers to the internet, as in Web 2.0. Web 2.0 means that because of interactivity and social media, the internet is a totally different place from what it used to be. If the term hadn’t fallen into severe disfavour, we could say that defining anything as 2.0 means a new paradigm has been created.

Hence Aging in Place 2.0. Ironically, the whole report is focused on caring for people the way we used to—ie, at home. What qualifies the report for the 2.0 designation is the fact that it suggests the development of a  whole new infrastructure to support people aging at home that goes way way beyond Meals on Wheels. The main pillars of AiP 2.0 are technology (for health care and monitoring), community resources (so people don’t get isolated in their own homes), transportation and community infrastructure (better designed communities in the long term, organizational approaches in the meantime), and houses that accommodate aging in place (universal design in the long term, modifications in the meantime).

The second reference to home care arose from the 23d annual national summit of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving (RCI). RCI has proposed the creation of a National Caregiving Initiative that would provide support for the millions of Americans who provide support for family members living at home.

And the third reference was in today’s Globe and Mail. An article by Rod Mickleburgh focuses on two BC doctors who provide care for aging patients in their homes. One of them, John Sloan, has written a very good book called A Bitter Pill: How the Medical System is Failing the Elderly. Here’s what he has to say:

Treating frail seniors in their homes is not only good for them, it reduces their hospital trips and medication needs as well as postponing admission to long-term care – all major drivers of health-care costs.

“It’s a lovely, win-win situation,” says John Sloan, the now-retired physician who pioneered the concept in Vancouver. “As you provide better care for these people, the price of it goes down. If we do this the right way, we may just rescue the health-care system. It’s the future. It has to be.”

Something to think about.

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Thoughts on Homecare for Seniors

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

My 87 year old mother recently spent 2 weeks with us (sorry for letting my posting slip somewhat). Near the end of her visit my son asked me how long I thought she would be able to continue living independently.  She moved from the family home into an apartment eight years ago. It’s not a seniors’ apartment and she still drives. She has all her mental faculties, takes almost no drugs, and does not use any kind of mobility device, although she can’t walk long distances and she shuffles a bit because she is afraid of falling.

So: a very independent senior you might conclude and you would be half right. She IS very independent but only because my three siblings live in the same city she does and they help her a lot. My sister does all her grocery shopping for example. My brothers do various maintenance tasks for her. Without that kind of help her life would be difficult, perhaps too difficult to allow her to remain at home, where she wants to be.

My mother is fortunate to have children close by who do these things for her. But what about people who don’t have kids close by? And, what about the boomers, who, typically, have had fewer children than their parents?

One solution is virtual retirement communities. We have posted about VRCs in earlier blogs and I am convinced they will become a prominent part of the landscape in years to come. Another is intentional communities. Someone I was talking to recently told me about a group of seniors who share the same caregiver. They all live in single family houses but not on the same street. The caregiver goes from one house to the next and is increasingly getting worn out. They have now decided that the obvious solution is for all of them to live together. And that indeed IS a good solution if they can get it off the ground fast enough.

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Virtual Retirement Communities

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

First developed in the US nearly a decade ago, virtual retirement communities (VRCs) are non-profit organizations that provide their members with a wide variety of services ranging from personal care to social and cultural activities. In essence, they provide supportive housing and assisted living in people’s own homes. Membership fees are about $600 per year for individuals and $800 per year for couples. Many services provided by VRCs are free, including opportunities to socialize and recreate, but for those that aren’t free, VRCs are able negotiate bulk discounts for the services they organize. But even better than that, VRCs identify reputable and reliable providers of goods and services—their members have only to dial one number and their needs are met.

Because they provide an affordable alternative to facility-based supportive housing and assisted living, VRCs are bound to become a prominent part of the aging-in-place continuum, particularly as constrained government budgets require people to assume more responsibility for their own housing and health care.

Whenever I describe VRCs to people, they get very excited. We are currently working with two clients in British Columbia who are interested in establishing a virtual retirement community and interest in them is bound to grow.

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