24
Summer 2022
TRANSITIONS IN AGING
Want to “Age in Place” Someday?
Planning ahead, and making changes gradually, can help older adults stay independent “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” If you’re old enough to remember watching the Wizard of Oz when it was only on television once a year, you remember that line. But have you thought about how to adapt your own home to be a great place to grow older? If you’re like 88% of people over age 50 who answered a recent University of Michigan poll, you probably want to “age in place” where you live now. But the report, from U-M’s National Poll on Healthy Aging, also finds that many people over 50 haven’t given much thought to what it might take to make their house, apartment, or condo a safer, more comfortable, and more age-friendly place that they can keep living in for years to come. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a wizard, a pair of ruby slippers, or Glinda the Good Witch to make those changes happen. But it does take a bit of planning—whether you’re doing it for yourself or helping an older relative or friend. Aging in place can also take money, and the ability to ask or pay for help from family, friends, community organizations, and businesses. That’s why you should start early, work it into your budget, and make changes gradually over time, says Beth Spencer, M.A., M.S.W., a retired geriatric social worker at the University of Michigan Geriatrics Center, and Sheria RobinsonLane, Ph.D., who studies aging in place topics at the U-M School of Nursing.
Spencer recently gave a talk, available on YouTube, that is packed with useful tips. Robinson-Lane worked on the team that conducted the recent poll. Both advise older adults not to wait for a crisis to arrive before taking action. Rather, think of aging in place as a journey on a road—perhaps a yellow brick road.
4 KEY TIPS ON HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY “AGE IN PLACE” 1. Start planning now if you haven’t already. It’s not easy to think about getting older, and about changes in your ability to move, see, hear, think, or drive like you do now. “In our society, people don’t want to think about aging,” says Spencer, who is in her 70s. “You may be in great shape now, but stuff happens. Like it or not, most of us will have some disability at some point, and it really requires thinking about this.” By planning ahead, you can maintain your independence a lot longer, no matter what health-related changes come up.
Spencer advises doing a walk through of your home with an eye on what it might be like for an older version of you to live there. What might it take to help you get in the door, to go up and down the stairs, to take a shower or bath, to avoid having to dash to answer the door, to do laundry, or to get groceries in and cook? The new poll showed only a third of older adults think their home definitely has the features needed to help them stay in it over the long term. It also showed that 1 in 10 older adults moved in the past five years to a home that’s easier to get around. After all, not all homes can be made age-friendly, or at least not with the financial resources of the people who live there. Part of planning ahead is talking with your family about what you want long term. “It is important to include family and close friends in conversations about growing older,” says Robinson-Lane. “Talk with them about your preferences and wishes in the event of a major medical crises and spend some time thinking about who you can rely on.” 740-363-6677 | MySourcePoint.org
