The New York Times Blog, The New Old Age is a really good and wide ranging approach to the issues of coping and caring. The current entry on small scale assisted living by Paula Span, is right on the button, as I would expect.
Clicking around as things work with on line media I hit a less current article that makes still relevant points. This 2006 article, written by Jane Gross who founded the blog, is about senior care benefits major employers provide to employees. The article is clear that benefits are for employers as much as employees. Nothing like enlightened self interest. That is how things work.
I want to highlight two points from the article:
1. Managing Resources is more critical than information about resources.
2. Prognosis, how long one will be well, when the tide turns and how long they will be sick is a huge unknown. It makes planning very difficult. It also explains why child care benefits are less a model for eldercare benefits than we might expect. In most cases kids bring less surprises as time goes on. Not so for older folks.
These points need to be resolved for Aging in Place to be the reality we expect it to be.
How do we get there?
Happy New Year to All! Here is hoping for health, happiness and some answers, please.
Louis Tenenbaum, one of the nation's leading authorities on aging in place, is the founder of HomesRenewed, a coalition of business, consumers and nonprofits, driving policy and investment to increase the number of age-friendly homes.