Plan Now to Age in Place

When it comes to aging in place, there’s a quote that comes to mind: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” It may sound negative, but there is simply nothing negative about being proactive and making solid plans to remain happily in your home through the aging journey.

Research shows that nearly all older Canadians want to remain in their homes and communities as long as they can, and that means having the health, and social supports and services in place to live safely and independently. That just doesn’t happen unless you make it happen.

To survive and thrive at home, being functionally fit is critical – physical strength is very often neglected. Frailty can derail dreams to remain at home! “Our best option is maintaining our fitness and functionality in order to avoid frailty, hospitalization and the need for institutionalization,” says Dr. Karen Humphreys, a physician, educator and frailty coach in B.C.

Dr. Humphreys helps people fulfill their wishes to age in place and her new book,  The Mission of Maya and Methuselah, offers clear instruction and practical advice to get ready physically, mentally and financially. For example, adequate financial health often takes years of planning – “there’s the cost of medications as we age; cost of repairs and making a safer home depending on our functionality, and insight into what we might need.”

Assess Home For Risks

For those lacking fitness and/or financial resources, family connections are often needed to assist in staying in our own home or moving into a suite in a family member’s home, adds the clinical instructor from UBC’s Faculty of Medicine who lives on Vancouver Island.

“The challenges of aging in place currently are being reactive rather than proactive. For example, purchasing new furniture should focus on long-term use – a high bed that looks great when you are 50 is a fall risk at 75,” she says. Home environments with things like treacherous stairs, lots of area rugs, cupboards that need a ladder to access pose obvious challenges but there are many other aspects of the home that need to be reviewed for planning future safety.

When it comes to aging bodies, the major challenges she sees is lack of overall fitness from a cardiovascular perspective; resistance training perspective; balance and flexibility perspective; social connectedness and cognition – brain exercises are just as important as physical exercises.

Shortage of Long-term Beds

Unfortunately, some people believe that they will not age and not need services (which are actually hard to procure and expensive too), says Dr. Humphreys. “I found that many folks that ended up in hospital had no idea that the Canada Health Act would not care for them as they aged. The cost of care has crushed many individuals so awareness and planning are the keys going forward as our population ages.”

We have a glut of aging baby boomers that will soon require more access to long-term care beds than are available. Right now there are just under 200,000 care home beds and we’re going to need more than 455,000 by the year 2035! That’s just a decade away!

Optimal planning should start after age 45 and the scenarios in her book guide folks through different decades in how to make lifestyle changes, do financial planning and have some foresight into what may be required as one ages in Canada. “We are unable to predict exactly which direction our life will go but we can prepare for many scenarios if we start planning early enough.”

Dr. Humphreys helps Victoria seniors and families strategize – encouraging, promoting and assisting in keeping them in their home. She does frailty coaching to prevent a decline in physical and functional status. “Frailty is a precursor to the loss of independence. Frailty can lead to fall, fractures, hospitalization, nursing home placement and death.”

Tips to Age in Place Safely

Take Dr. Humphrey’s tips to successfully age in place as long as possible:

• Get a home assessment done to deal with items like grab bars, correct size and spacing of furniture; purge unnecessary items to prevent crowding.

• Make your home liveable for a lifetime. Preparing our homes is a detailed project that some of the services such as Silver Spaces or similar organizations will provide.

• Realistically understand where you want to live in the last 15 years of independent functioning. Have a plan that includes financial details of where you want to live if no longer independent.

• Get into the best physical shape of your life now and access mental health services (treat depression), get your hearing and vision checked regularly, and use hearing aids and glasses as suggested.

• Maintain social connectedness and learn something new or do other brain body skills to keep your brain health intact for as long as possible. (Read more about How To Prepare An Aging Brain To Re-enter The Workforce)

• Work early with a professional such as a certified financial planner can help you plan for many scenarios as you age.

• Also, any chore that requires an elderly person to go on a ladder, should be done by younger family members or contracted out for safety reasons; same thing for snow blowing, shovelling snow by hand, and general home maintenance and repair. “Really evaluate one’s ability to do these things safely and get input from your primary care provider, friends, family members and be open to considering assistance,” adds Humphreys.

Meanwhile, aging in place makes people happy and healthy, and Custodia offers the support to age at home joyfully, safely and worry free. From installing grab bars to regular property upkeep, our home management plans ensure the home environment, inside and outside, remains safe, secure and well-maintained.

Related read Rethink Aging With Colin Milner