Ninety percent of seniors want to age in place at home, and new reporting suggests a growing trend to discharge from hospital directly to home. Patients get treatment and quality medicine through technology and house calls while experiencing faster recovery by being in familiar surroundings. As the two forces collide it is more important than ever that seniors, adult children and extended families think seriously about what it takes to make home “longevity-ready.”

The end goal is simple. It’s about deploying innovative solutions that enable older adults to lead safe, healthy and independent lives. Fortunately, there is significant science to guide us today.

So what are the 5 most important considerations?

  1. Understand and mitigate risks. First and foremost, it is critical to identify and mitigate the risks inherent in the home. The Texas based Performance Based Healthcare Solutions ™ has created a methodology, its LIFE Profile™, that analyzes scores hundreds of factors across five areas that affects successful aging: managing medical conditions, safety, maintaining autonomy and independence, engaging in life, and consideration for burdening others with care. Its findings allow seniors to make decisions around care support. Hiring a professional life care advocate (formerly called a geriatric care manager) can be helpful in deploying this kind of risk evaluation.
  2. Make a home safe. Having identified risks, websites like Aging Innovation offer scores of practical tips for enhancing safety in every room in the house. These sites identify manufacturers of appliances, wearables, technology and equipment conducive to supporting safe living. A powerful new platform, sensi.ai, uses digital voice and AI technologies to capture voice interactions. Voice streams can detect and prevent cognitive, mental and physical distress of seniors, and may be positioned as game-changers in amplifying home care for seniors with dementia.
  3. Listen to what seniors want. The best way to make a home longevity-ready is to pay attention to what a senior wants, needs and cares about. The best place to look for these cues is Picker’s 8 Principles of Patient Centered Care. The principles are simple. Seniors want their preferences respected, their care coordinated and integrated. They are eager for information and education, and expect physical comfort and emotional support. They need the engagement with friends and family. And, finally, they must have continuity of care because they have access to it. These are not bold concepts, but they do require diligence.
  4. Put a team in place: To do all that is required above takes a team and a plan. Eric Coleman, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Colorado has become an influential voice in healthcare self-management. He stresses the concept of “simple” in his Care Transitions Program (CTP). From bringing on counsel through NAELA (National Association of Elder Law Attorneys) to screening home care agencies specializing in Parkinson’s disease, the advice for seniors and families is manageable.
  5. Use tech to connect and engage: As tablets, apps, wearables and telehealth are streamlining the delivery of medical care to seniors, tech is being deployed for a very high-touch purpose: the mitigation of isolation and loneliness and connection to community. e-VOLV Senior Connections in Boston has aggregated and curated a collection of free and fee-based content targeted specifically to and for seniors on a safe and secure platform environment. With a tablet and internet connection, seniors can take university classes, tour European cities and find local volunteer opportunities. Available directly to seniors, the platform is also being introduced through assisted living communities, local councils on aging and home care companies, enabling these trusted organizations to offer virtual activities and add new dimensions to caregiver visits in the home.

    Cynthia Connelly is a Boston-based strategic marketing professional, writer and communications consultant specializing in the senior living sector. Her latest engagement is for startup e-VOLV Senior Connections, which provides an innovative solution to mitigate the loneliness and isolation that reached epic proportions among seniors during the pandemic. e-VOLV aggregates and curates a vast collection of free and fee-based content targeted specifically for seniors. With a simple click and access to the internet, the caregiver and client can listen to jazz at Lincoln Center, exercise with Silver Sneakers, discover a meditation class in Colorado and so much more. Visit www.evolvsc.com to learn more.