Regardless of our family size (or if we are single), our age, geographic location, or type or age of our dwelling, all of us are aging in place where we are now.
Everyone is aging in place
Aside from the fact that all of are adding hours to our lives with each passing day and getting older this way, we are aging in place because we likely woke up today where we went to bed last night. Unless we are visiting someone or staying in temporary quarters like a Vrbo, dormitory, or hotel, the living space we have occupied in the recent past is where we are aging in place. We own that space, and it owns us – regardless of the financial arrangements.
It’s an identity. We have a place to call ours as we go through life. It can change, but for many of us it does not need to do so. Some of us have occupied the same home for a couple of decades or longer. Some still live in the home the lived in as a child. Others may have recently moved into a new dwelling.
The fact remains that wherever we are living and whatever configuration that living space may have, we are aging in place in that living environment. Many of us can take comfort in knowing that nothing needs to change about our physical address as the days and years go by.
Everyone is different
All of us have different goals, experiences, expectations, and needs. This is true regardless of where we are living, the type of dwelling we have, and our physical abilities.
The reason that aging in place intervention is so important is that all of us have different, needs, interests, tastes, abilities, and environments. The home that we live in may differ greatly from the home next door, or it may just differ in personal touches. It may be the exact same sage (to the day or week) as the home next door or across the street, or it may have been built months or years apart. Still the way we occupy and use our homes varies tremendously.
If our homes did not need to match our needs and abilities, and they could not be personalized to what we desire, and if those requirements and needs weren’t so different from one another, we could all live in the same exact floor plan.
Getting involved with the marketplace
Because of the tremendous need for people to live in a safe and comfortable home environment – regardless of its size or layout – we have a huge role to play in helping them to achieve this outcome. Through home assessments of needs, abilities, functions, and attributes of the occupants and the dwelling, we can create a scope of services that details a course of action to help people use their homes to the utmost. Of course, being creative in terms of the applications recommended and how much they cost is part of the program we offer.
Everyone can use what we offer because everyone is aging in place. Some people may already have identified what they need to have to remain safe and functional in their homes and have already done what is required. However, most people can use our help. It’s just a matter of finding those people who need our help the most, who want us to assist them, and then beginning there.