Senior Care

Not much going on in our ongoing senior care saga. I almost got saddled with the responsibility for the care of another senior, but for now my deadbeat cousin seems to be stepping up to take care of her mother. She is a nursing home, but needs someone to take care of her finances and the like. My cousin tries to pass it off on me on the theory that I was doing a good job with the care of her aunt and uncle.

Otherwise things are normally tiring and I am keeping up with senior care issues but not doing a whole lot other than taking care of my own family.

We have had an interesting run in with geese in our yard and I have been reading up on how to get rid of canadian geese. This turns out to be a pretty big problem and may even have been the cause of that plane crash into the Hudson river in New York.

Also reading some good blogs on senior care.

senior housing a major care issue

Clearly one of the major issues in the senior care area is senior housing. The growing number of seniors are going to need a growing amount of senior housing, assisted living, and nursing home space. I know I am coming back to the senior housing topic, but the housing crisis in this country makes it even worse.

For many seniors, their major asset is their house, and that is the thing they always assumed that they would leverage to pay for senior care when they needed it. The problem is that this is a very bad time to sell a house so the reserves that they though they had are not there, or not as large. If forced to sell their house to pay for care or to transition to some form of senior housing, they are losing a lot of the value that would (hopefully) return if they could just wait. Even those seniors who want to borrow against the equity in their house are finding that much more difficult and providing much less value.

In terms of resources for senior housing, I did come across this page at the New Hampshire seniors resources project. It provides links to local resources for senior housing. Hopefully this can help people in New Hampshire, though I think they need to add more listings.

One thing that I think seniors will not have to worry about but that was pointed out to me as a funny thing to look at by a friend is this page on world of warcraft addiction, which is funny but not so funny as I know a young couple who seem to be spending a lot of their time playing the game.

It is worth a moment of levity when thinking about the growing senior care problem and the senior housing crisis that is looming.

senior care - senior housing

I know that there have been a lot of posts lately on senior housing, assisted living and such. I've been meaning to jump in on the subject so here goes.

I think that senior housing is likely to become a more and more of an issue as the boomer generation ages. Here is another quick statistic on this issue:
In 2000, 12.8% of the US population were 65 years of age or older. 1 in 8 Americans are over the age of 62. As the "Baby Boomers" reach 62, the impact of those who were born between 1946 and 1964 will create 80 million additional Americans who are 62 years of age or older. The impact is so great that by 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be aged 62 years and older. There will be an increased demand for housing that is designed for seniors.

The scary ting about this is that the senior housing and assisted living that we have now is already not keeping up. This is only going to get worse. It is especially bad since with the economy the way it is, companies are unlikely to build significantly more senior housing or more assisted living facilities. Yes these are growing ares and everyone knows that the senior population is increasing, but companies are clearly very cautious about investing more money, especially in construction. Even if they wanted to, it sounds like they would have a hard time getting financing to build new senior care facilities.

This of course leaves more of the senior care issues to be solved by family. This is where a lot of us are now and it is only going to get worse over time. Imagine a country where one in five households is caring for a senior?

Unfortunately, as my friend points out there is one more step to this problem beyond senior care and senior housing. That is cemetery space. There are over six billion people alive today. If each one needs a cemetery plot 4 feet by 8 feet... do the math.

That is somewhat morbid, but even focusing on the senior care problem, there is plenty to worry about. What about a world where 1 in 5 people lives in senior housing? That leaves a lot of empty houses and depressed real estate prices, and a shortage of senior housing. Maybe our economy will go from everyone working at WalMart to everyone working at an assisted living or senior care facility. Maybe we'll just skip right to the final solution and WalMart will open a series of SeniorMart senior care facilities.. "Always the lowest prices, always the best senior care, all seniors shipped to China where the care givers are paid ten cents a day."

I guess I'm rambling, but I can already see the problems based on the waiting lists we have in my are for space in senior housing or assisted living facilities. Effectively seniors are waiting for someone to die or at least to get sicker so they move to the next level of care and open a spot.

Senior care is just going to be a growing problem.

The Senior Care Problem

If you are not convinced that senior care is a growing problem here are some more statistics. These are also borrow from another site, but help to show the concerns of people who wind up responsible for the care of of a senior. The issue is both time and money though these statistics focus mostly on the financial aspects of senior care:

• After age 65 your chances of entering a nursing home are about 50/50, or 1 in 2
• If you’re diagnosed as a “custodial care” patient, meaning your condition has stabilized and you’re not getting any better, Medicare will not pay for your care
• The average cost of a nursing home in California in 2004 is $170/day, or just over $5,000/month. That’s $60,000/year!!
• Seniors have an average of $20,000 in savings – this is why 90% of the families who aren’t prepared for long term care go broke in about 4 months
• The average length of time spent in a nursing home is 30 months or 2½ years. A little simple math tells you that the total cost will be $150,000; ($60K/year X 2.5 years = $150K).
• Worse, the nursing home costs have been increasing at a rate of about 7% per year since 1998, which means that in just 10 years you’ll pay $10,000/month, and in 2030 the cost will be over $15,000/month! NO ONE has $150,000 now to spend on long term care, and you certainly won’t have a whopping $540,000 in 2030!! ($15K/month X 30 months = $540K)
• We know the costs will continue to increase, but how long you live, or your average life expectancy, affects the total cost as well. If you’re a man your average life expectancy is 78 years – If you’re a woman you’ll live a little longer on average, about 80 years. But due to medical advances and new genetic technologies, these numbers are increasing!! Now that’s GREAT news as long as you’re healthy – It becomes really bad news if you’re in a nursing home. The longer you’re there, the more you’ll have to pay.
• Even if your family has 2, 3 or 4 times more money tucked away than the average family does, about $20,000, it’s obvious that you still won’t be able to pay all the costs. You’ll end up broke, with a State lien on your home, and nothing left as an inheritance for your children and heirs.
• Anyone who has experienced a long term care incident directly or indirectly will tell you they wish someone had warned them about long term care so they could have done something to protect themselves.

This is a good, though dire, description targeted at people who don't want to become dependent senior citizens in the future. What about the people who are already helping to care for a senior? You already know how much senior care costs and how much of your time it takes. Maybe you are looking in to a nursing home (the worst case option for senior housing) or assisted living or a retirement community. Either way the financial burden of senior care is daunting. Typically, as the above describes, the senior themselves really doesn't have much put away for this. That means that you can potentially watch or even help you inheritance disappear. Or even worse you can find yourself in a situation where the senior you care for needs resources that they can't afford, again assisted living, senior housing, or a nursing home, and they can't pay for it so you wind up paying out of your own pocket. After all, you care for them how can you let them not get the services they need?

So what can you do? The first thing is to start with an understanding about how much of the senior's care you are going to be responsible for. Are you going to be an advisor, provide assistance, be the sole care giver, etc. Getting this clear up front makes a lot of the decisions easier. The second is to find out what the right living arrangement for them is. There is a big difference both in cost and level of care between letting the senior stay in their home with some home care or home health care or moving to a retirement community, senior housing, assisted living, or nursing home. Choosing the right living/housing option for a senior is the most important thing to get right. Then you need to be flexible as the circumstances can and will change as the senior ages. Maybe living at home with care visits works for a while bu then they need to move to assisted living.

There are also financial, insurance and other decisions that need to be made and then reviewed regularly. The goal here is to review all of these issues as they apply to senior care and provide guidance and resources (for example: senior care resources in New Hampshire) . As I always say, senior care can be very rewarding if done right.

Senior Care

Senior care is a growing issue in this country. More and more people are now provide some level of care for a senior citizen neighbor or relative. Senior care is somewhat of a hidden industry as the amount of time, effort, and money spent on care of seniors is not really recorded. If you visit you senior mother once a week to help her take care of shopping or bills or driver her to health care appointment or to the senior center, you are doing work that would otherwise fall to some social services agency. Many of us are caring for senior citizens with little support or guidance.

My goal is to help people who care for senior citizens with information, resources and pointers. There is information on the internet to help with senior care if you know where to look. There are also blogs by a lot of other people who care for their senior relatives an they are a good source of information and of emotional support.

I "borrowed" this from another website (companionconnectionseniorcare) but I think it is really interesting:

• A recent study by the California Department of Aging estimated that 30% of woman and 17% of men over the age of 75 need some form of assistance with personal care.
• The study went on to show that in the age group 65-79, 17% need some form of assistance.
• In the age group 75-84, 28% need some form of assistance.
• In the age group 85 and older, 49% need some form of personal care assistance.
• The age group 85 and older is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population.

This means that there are a lot of us out there and we should work together. Senior care can be enjoyable and rewarding just as much as senior care can be a huge burden.