Council on Aging Answers 2015 - 82

Plan Ahead for
Continuing Care
COUNCIL ON AGING - ORANGE COUNTY

Don't wait to have the talk
about living arrangements
in your later years
FINANCE & LEGAL

n Jane Bryant Quinn

might have to add a bedroom downstairs with a bathroom whose door can accommodate a wheelchair. A
pretty front porch will become a trap if there's nowhere
to build a ramp to the sidewalk. If you don't want to
renovate, perhaps you should simplify-sell the house
now and buy a condominium in the same community,
to stay close to your friends and social activities.
Whether in a house or a condo, you might eventually need caregiving services, if a spouse or child isn't
constantly available. You'll also need someone you trust
to supervise home-care aides-to be sure they're always
doing right by you. Who is that likely
to be? This shouldn't be a snap decision
made under duress. The whole family
should plan.
Some older people expect to move in
with an adult child. If you have a house
to sell, consider using the proceeds to
put an addition on the child's home, to
provide each of you with some privacy.

Where will I live when I start to need help with the
daily business of living? I don't want to wait for my
children to open "the conversation," in
carefully casual tones. ("Ahem, Mom,
we were wondering ...") I want to start
that conversation myself. Their input
will influence me, but I want the decision to be mine.
As do we all. But we can blunder
into decisions simply by doing nothing. Most of us want to "age in place"
with occasional side trips to other nice
places. That works fine as long as we
Setting an example
can take care of ourselves. When we
My own parents set an example
can't, however, we'll start depending
for me. In their 70s and in reasonably
on someone else. That's the decision
good health, they decided to sell their
house and move to a lovely apartment
I'm thinking about. Who will be there
in a continuing care retirement comto help, and what can I do, in advance,
munity (CCRC). These communities
to ease the transition? I don't want to
Jane Bryant Quinn
may provide housekeeping, laundry,
be stubborn about aging in place if it's
meals in a common dining room, fitgoing to create caregiving problems for
ness centers, new friendships, entertainment and activimy children (not to mention medical risks for me).
ties. They're also safe places to live. If you start to fail
If you don't have children, or have children you can't
depend on, the question becomes even more important. physically, there's help with bathing, dressing, medications and so on. A skilled-nursing unit cares for the bedKindly neighbors running errands isn't a permanent
ridden or those who develop dementia.
solution.
CCRCs relieve adult children of the minutiae of parPeople hoping to stay in their homes should look at
the floor plan as if they were already using a walker. You ent care, which is a special gift to kids who live far away.
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Answers Guide 2015

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Council on Aging Answers 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Council on Aging Answers 2015