What is Ageing in Place, and What Does it Mean for Your Family?

The ageing process can be frightening, especially as a senior gradually realizes that he or she is dependent on others for basic needs. For many older people, the worst fear of all is having to give up their independence and move to a home for aged or assisted-living facility.

Over 85% of older Canadians wish to stay in their own homes as long as possible. There is a growing trend among older people and their families of ageing in place.

What Is Ageing in Place?

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) defines ageing in place as "having the health and social supports and services you need to live safely and independently in your home or your community for as long as you wish and are able."

Basically, ageing in place is old age care that enables the elderly to live with dignity—as independently as possible and for as long as possible—in their own homes.

What Does Ageing in Place Mean for My Family?

Most importantly, it means you need a plan. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ageing in place. The elements of a successful strategy will be as individual as seniors themselves.

Let’s look at things to consider when creating an ageing-in-place plan for your loved one.

Assessing Your Ageing-in-Place Needs

The first step to developing a plan for senior home services is to determine how much support your loved one needs—and what kinds of support—to remain at home. If you’re caring for an elderly parent in your home, is someone home during the day? If not, you may need to rely on services for elderly living at home.

Your senior may need assistance with all the items on this list or only one or two.

Personal Care

At the most basic level, your loved one may need help with activities of daily living (ADLs). These are the essential day-to-day needs that include feeding themselves, bathing, dressing, and toileting.

Household Tasks

• These are called instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and include chores such as cooking meals, doing laundry, keeping track of medications, shopping, running errands, paying bills, and home and yard maintenance. Will they be able to do these things for themselves? Can they be relied upon to eat right? Maybe they need someone to run errands for them, or simply to drive them so they can do it themselves.

Home Healthcare

• You will need to look at your loved one's health status. Will they need help with their medications?  Are they still able to get out to visit their medical providers, or will you need to arrange for home care? Maybe a combination of both? Will they need regular nursing visits, or will a home health aide be enough? If they can get out to healthcare visits, will they need transportation?

Companion Care

• Will your loved-one be home alone for prolonged periods? Sometimes even the most independent of older people are lonely, and it can be easy to underestimate the importance of companionship. Loneliness can lead to clinical depression, which is common in the elderly. Sometimes having someone to play a game or share a meal with can make all the difference to the quality of life of a senior.

Safety

• What type of safety measures will your loved one need? Will you need to make modifications to your home? How much monitoring will they need? You may want to consider one of the many technological options available to allow older people to remain safely at home. Options include medical alert programs, sensors and cameras that will monitor an elder’s activity and notify authorities if they register something unusual or dangerous (such as leaving the stove on), or a monitoring program that schedules a human to check in on them at regular intervals and send help if there’s no response.

The Cost of Ageing in Place

Regardless of the specifics of your plan, there will be costs involved with in-home care and possible modifications to your home. But you may be surprised to learn that in many cases, in-home care for seniors is less expensive than moving into a retirement home or long-term care home.

Take time to research the benefits your senior may be eligible for. There are government benefit programs that offer assistance for seniors living at home. There are tax benefits (and potentially other programs) for caring for seniors at home that caretakers may be eligible for. If your loved one is a veteran, they may qualify for VA assistance.

Visit websites of agencies for elderly home care, including the Area Agency on Aging, the National Council on Aging, or the Aging Place for more information on available benefits for long-term care.

Home Concierge Can Help

If this all sounds overwhelming, we understand, and we’re here to help. Home Concierge can provide the peace of mind you need to balance the demands of your own busy life with your desire to give your loved one the best possible care.

We can help with many of the tasks needed by seniors living at home. We offer premium companionship and support, social opportunities, help getting to and from medical appointments, and home upkeep services to help your loved one age in place with the best possible quality of life.

For a complete list of our personal concierge offerings, please visit What is a Personal Concierge and What Do They Do?