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There are a few problems with this thinking. For example - government programs don't pay for all the kinds of help an older person might need (much less help in the form they'd prefer). Also - fewer and fewer places are accepting residents who rely on government assistance for payment. And those that are accepting residents who rely on government assistance often aren't the better ones. Robyn
My SIL the retired Geriatric social worker and a good one has a thought that the role and importance of Assisted Living will begin to decline as technology enable folks to stay at home and be monitored etc etc with technology assistance.
Technology can make things easier for people who need some kinds of help. But it's not going to help the person who is incontinent and doesn't know because of dementia that he or she should be changing the adult diapers. Most ALFs I see now are basically "memory care" places - and they tend to deal with people who have minor to medium dementia. Robyn
My SIL the retired Geriatric social worker and a good one has a thought that the role and importance of Assisted Living will begin to decline as technology enable folks to stay at home and be monitored etc etc with technology assistance.
Assisted Living eligibility requirements are that the person needs assistance with activities in these categories: bathing, dressing, eating, transferring (getting out of bed, moving from one room or place to another), continence, toileting.
I don't see how remote monitoring and technology play a role in any of those.
42 percent of people turning age 65 will have no private out-of-pocket costs for long-term care over their lifetime.
19 percent of those turning 65 will have out-of-pocket costs under $10,000 over their lifetime.
8 percent will have costs between $10,000 and $25,000.
14 percent will have costs from $25,000 to $100,000.
11 percent will have costs over their lifetime from $100,000 to $250,000.
5 percent will have costs of $250,000 or more.
this is the reason I don't spend a lot of time worrying about long term care. I'm not planning to leave an estate. The government/private facility can have whatever it needs from whatever is left if I somehow get sucked into the system.
thanks to the OP of this piece
Robynn55
I don't understand what problems with my thinking you are referring to since I am not interested in the services you mentioned.
I did hear that amazon is going to start delivering groceries which made me happy. That and places that deliver pizza, salads, sandwiches, etc should keep me fed. I live in a town where getting food should not be a problem. As to housekeeping, I'll be as clean as I want to be.
My neighbor calls 911 2 or 3 times a week. He has housekeeping service, home health, PT, etc. He may as well paint a target on his back. He goes from the hospital to "rehab" now and eventually comes back home, but, one day, they will keep him. I keep expecting to hear that he has fallen and broken something while he's away. I think he's a big baby but its his choice of how to live his life. He thinks he doesn't have a choice. It wouldn't suit me.
I expect I will ask for help when I want it. The main point being that I'm not worrying about it now. I am doing my best to take care of myself, enjoy life, and not get doctored to death just because I am getting older.
I have a friend up the street who is almost 20 yrs my senior. She's my inspiration.
Biscuitmom, perhaps better care at home thru technological advances can keep some people from deteriorating to a point where they need to be institutionalized. I think that's what TuborgP's SIL is saying. Sadly, I do think that there will always be a per centage who need institutional care.
I'd bet CD posters, just like non-posters, travel because they enjoy visiting other places, not because "it is the thing to do". We usually stay 2 weeks to a month in any one place, giving us time to soak up a little more local culture as well as hitting the high spots. Staying a longer time doesn't make you or me any less tourists, it just makes us a different variety tourist. It's all good. Taking shorter trips does not make one an inferior traveler and for sure being an "ugly" traveler has nothing to do with the length of stay.
That's for sure, traveling is too much trouble to be doing it because "it's the thing to do", rather than traveling because one wants to visit other locations, whether it's a short visit or a longer soujourn. Or for whatever the traveler wants to see or experience on his journey(s)....
Someone in their 70s may spend less than in their 60s, but then it goes way up again for many. As we are reaching retirement age we have relatives aged 95 an 99, one recently passed at 98.
A good assisted living facility can cost $4,000-6,000 a month. Going in at age 83 and living to 95 is going to cost someone $600-800,000 assuming no increases over those 12 years.
Since most people don't have this amount of money, what happens to all of these people when they can't afford assisted living facilities? Surely, the majority won't be kicked to the curb. Maybe it will be like the old days when family took care of their elderly and is that such a bad thing? My grandmother always lived with us and had various health problems. In her sixties she had a couple of operations...one was to fix a hiatal hernia, in her late seventies she fell and broke her hip and shoulder (she had osteoporosis) and shortly after she showed signs of senility (what we called alzheimers at that time). It wasn't always easy, but we took care of her. I remember giving her manicures when I was as young as ten because she couldn't do it herself. We took her everywhere we went and we enjoyed her company. I think being with family is nicer than assisted living facilities, but I guess not always an option.
Since most people don't have this amount of money, what happens to all of these people when they can't afford assisted living facilities? company. I think being with family is nicer than assisted living facilities, but I guess not always an option.
They stay with family or they live at home alone until they're incapacitated enough to qualify for nursing homes, which Medicaid covers.
Whether ALFs are better/nicer than living with family depends upon many factors. Remember that you're a patient in a nursing home but you're a resident in an ALF. When a loved one is in an ALF, you can stay with them for extended visits, take them out for as long as you/they want, etc.
My mother and mother-in-law both chose to go to ALFs, when they had the option to live with family. MIL has been in one 18 months now, it's 1/4 mile from us and she's happy there, has a studio suite with her own furnishings, and friends she's known for years are also residents there. She has a kitchenette and can keep and make her own snacks and small meals if she wants. Prior to moving to the ALF, she had a stroke and spent a month in a nursing home where it was hell on earth. We couldn't wait to get her out of there.
My mom spent the last six months of her life in an ALF in the community where she had lived all her life and she was also happy and content there in a one-bedroom suite with her little dog and her own furnishings. Several of the staff were people she had known since they were children. She lived about an hour from me, and I stayed overnight with her at least once a week. Her kitchenette was sufficiently large and equipped that I could cook her favorite meals when I visited.
This is why I put aside through 401k and seek to spend the rest as long as it doesn't mean we're living paycheck to paycheck... when we're still young and in our prime years. I never understood hoarding money for gray and old.
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Mental health. Priceless, ain't it?
