The elderly care world continues to expand and evolve to meet seniors exactly where they are at. Gone are the days of “one size fits all” elderly care where one company determines what type of care all its residents will have. Seniors have different needs and different preferences. And one preference remains constant in a majority of seniors year after year: they want to stay at home if they can possibly help it.
Aside from those with chronic and serious medical issues, many seniors are able to stay at home, from a physical standpoint. What they need is some daily assistance. Many can’t get groceries, or can’t do housework. And many need daily help or reminders with taking medicines–things that can be accomplished with a visit from a nurse. These seniors often end up selling their house and moving into an assisted living facility because they see no other way. Assisted living can meet those needs and can put them in an environment where they can actually be part of a community.
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But there is a new, cutting edge idea that is spreading throughout the senior care community that could actually allow seniors in this position to stay home while having those needs met. Some call it “virtual senior communities,” others call them “senior villages,” but the idea is the same. What if groups of seniors who lived near one another could stay in their homes but form a sort of club? What if they figured out the types of resources that could meet their needs, and decided to hire people who could help meet all of those: home health care givers who could make rounds to their different houses every day; people to go buy and deliver groceries to their homes; drivers who could be on call to take the members to various appointments? And what if these seniors, living in the comfort of their own homes, organized social activities with one another in the process?
Here is one example in the Boston area. It is called Beacon Hill Village, and they offer services to seniors who live in their own homes. The communities who are experimenting with this idea have found good success. The “senior village” is able to accomplish much of what a retirement home or assisted living community would. Home health care is becoming increasingly flexible as senior franchises are spreading all over the country. That flexibility is opening up doors for this idea to be possible. As senior volunteer groups continue to pop up, and caregiving companies expand, it gets easier. And the social gathering part is the easiest of all.
Besides the obvious benefit of staying at home, there is another huge plus in this idea: the costs. It is far cheaper to be a part of one of these communities than to live full time in an assisted living home.
So can “senior villages” work anywhere? Probably not. Many seniors are just not capable of accomplishing the activities for daily living (getting out of bed, washing their bodies, changing their clothes, etc.) that are required for independence, and a once-a-day visit from a nurse or caregiver just will not be enough. But for those who can swing it, the idea will take off, especially in neighborhoods where there enough seniors to make the idea happen. However, the onus is going to be on seniors themselves to organize these communities. There is no company that comes in and does this, and that is exactly the point. So if a senior is willing to take leadership in the idea and get it going, it can meet the needs of many others in the community. I don’t expect these communities to take the place of assisted living any time soon, but now that the door is open, people will walk through it.
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