Aging in Place

And so this is where the actuarial rubber meets the road.

Baby boomers appeared of a sudden, historically. We swelled the ranks of the middle class. We demanded and got affordable housing just out of town, and cheap gas to get us back and forth to the places we spent our money.

Now we’ve grown up, grown old and grown to need a lot of new things that society is just now wondering how to offer to both the well-off and the not-so-well-off elders of our times.

Chief among these missing older-boomer things is a way for aging folks who have enjoyed those city edges and settled neighborhoods to stay in or near them when their physical, emotional and health needs become more demanding of the help of others in the context of a familiar and supportive setting for their final years.

Hence, “Aging in Place.” I attend a three hour meeting this morning at Hotel Floyd to discuss this complex issue, both at the personal and the community level. I rather dread being forced to look at the inevitable demands that come with inevitable decline and increasing dependency on community, neighbors and family.

But face it we must.

Some gathered resources from a quick overview this morning:

► Age In Place | The National Aging In Place Council   http://www.ageinplace.org/

► Aging in Place | SeniorLiving.com   https://www.seniorliving.com/aging-place

► Aging in Place and Senior Resources   http://www.seniorresource.com/ageinpl.htm

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. We are so lucky in our community. When a nonprofit community hospital closed, the assets were converted into a non-profit that provides all sorts of heath services for the community, including lots of senior assistance.

  2. Aging in place, buzzwords for our generation. Some of us can only hope and dream about it, while others have the necessary services in abundance! Anyone with a topped-up portfolio will be okay, but most of us are wondering how to fill in the gaps between the money we have and the services we will need. I know I’m not alone in worrying about it!

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