Aging in Place — The Preferred Method of Aging
Living Life Care Home is committed to the philosophy of "Aging in Place" which advocates allowing the resident to choose to remain in their living environment despite the physical or mental decline that may occur with the aging process. To that end and goal, Living Life Care Home has a full-range of services that are accessible to the resident as needs occur. Our "Aging in Place" culture allows us to care for you or your loved one as their health or independence may decline. We want the life of our residents to be one of comfort, dignity, and in familiar surroundings you've learned to call home!
A long-standing assumption has existed that as an individual grew frailer, he or she required a continuum of senior living facilities, physically moving from one residence to another, as health or housing service needs changed. Increasingly over the last ten years there has been growing acceptance of the idea that older persons do not necessarily need to relocate as their needs change, but can modify their environment by adding supportive services and reconfiguring their residence. This “revised view of the housing continuum therefore stresses the elasticity of conventional housing in terms of its ability to accommodate a wider spectrum of older persons.” It can be achieved by “creating a wider variety of options for frail older persons that facilitate aging in place in physically supportive residential settings linked with services.” Aging in place requires the coordination of health and housing programs to deliver a customized level of care in an individual’s current environment.
In the last decade aging in place has not only become the most desirable way of aging but also in ost cases it is the more cost-efficient way of aging. The AARP reported in May 2000 that “the desire to remain in their current residence for as long as possible becomes more prevalent as age increases. Seventy-five percent of those age 45 to 54, and 83 percent of those age 55 to 64 strongly or somewhat agree that they wish to remain in their homes as long as possible, while 92 percent of those age 65 to 74 and nearly all of those age 75 and over (95 percent) want to do.” Aging in place has become a part of the public rhetoric in the last ten years. Seniors and heir children are starting to envision, and demand, a range of options beyond the nursing home. Policy makers generally agree that keeping elderly individuals out of nursing homes is the primary objective of aging policy.
Successful aging-in-place programs minimize the provision of inappropriate care, and therefore he costs, by offering a range of flexible services and calibrating those services to fit the needs of he individual. Rather than a rigid service-delivery system, aging-in-place strategies create both health-care and housing options that provide support at the margin of need as defined by an individual’s personal desire and efforts to live independently. Aging in place works best as part of a comprehensive and holistic approach to the support needs of an aging individual and an aging community.
When an individual is allowed to age in his or her community with social support networks intact, costs are minimized and care is delivered in response not to a rigid service-delivery model, but to actual need. Communities save needed resources by reducing the amount of unnecessary service to individuals who could and would prefer to be more independent. Despite the benefits and cost savings which can be achieved by avoiding overcare and undercare, historical, structural and regulatory barriers keep health and housing services separate.
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