Planning and Design

Designing and creating a “forever home” for successful Aging In Place is a business in need by many today desiring to hold onto their home and age comfortably. Homes are aesthetically pleasing (non-institutional) with increased accessibility and functionality for those with mobility issues. The specialist will provide:

• In-Home assessments to evaluate the client’s specific wants, needs, goals, and design solution ideas
• property evaluations and feasibility studies to potential home-buyers and land / building developers
• Design for new construction, remodeling, and additions to your home and property

Services

A partial or complete redesign are available options. The following list of functions can give you a place to start assessing the home to determine a partial/full list of items you may require:

STAIRS and TRIP HAZARDS

• Are throw rugs being used? Are loved ones tripping?
• How are stairs being navigated the stairs? Are they using the handrail? Are they also holding onto the other wall for support? Are there other vertical transitions or thresholds between heights or materials that were an issue for them to navigate?

DAYLIGHTING

• Is their house light and bright, or dark and dim? Is there too much glare during certain times of day with the sun at certain angles in the sky / through the windows (late afternoon? early morning?) Are blinds, shades, or external overhangs needed to help with the glare coming into the rooms.
• Does it feel warm and inviting, or cold and dark?
• Does it feel “lived in”, or a bit too “empty”? Are visitors comfortable in your parents home?

TASK LIGHTING

• Do they have sufficient lighting (both ambient and task) at the places where they stop and do work such as a desk, cooking and prep areas, reading chairs, etc.?
• Is the light blocked by the occupant?
• Does their body cast a shadow on the work space they are trying to use?

FIXTURE OPERATION

• How are the use of faucets and sinks managed? Do they require you to grip and twist handles, or can you push a lever with your wrist for operation?
• How about door handles or door knobs? Are there doorknobs that are tough to turn and require a grip and twist?
• Are there doors that are “tight” or “tough” to open, that seem to require an extra thrust and then they “release” open all at once?

GRIP ASSISTANCE

• How did they do holding onto a stack of dishes or a handful of silverware? How about their cooking utensils, did they seem to cause discomfort or require extra effort or focus to utilize?

PLUGS and SWITCHES

• Did you notice how Mom or Dad’s hands use a standard light switch? Do they flip it up and down with ease and without pain? Do they alter how they use their hand for this task?
• Do they have trouble reaching down to standard height outlets for cords and plugs?

CLEAR SPACE and MANEUVERABILITY

• How did they do moving down the hall, and through / around doors that needed to be opened or closed on the way through them?
• Are there door swings that are a hindrance to the open floor space in a room that make it tough to move about freely inside the room? Are there door swings that create tough to reach areas in a room when they are open?

ACCESSIBLITY to their THINGS

• How did they do getting dishes in and out of the sink, dishwasher, cabinetry? Could they safely and easily get items out of all upper and lower cabinetry in the kitchen, laundry room, garage, etc.?
• Do shelves come “up” and “down” to meet the user at a comfortable height, or is it an exercise in precarious reaching?

Specialization

A “home designer” requires no licensing or exams process for residential design

A licensed Architect has typically completed on average 8 years of schooling and apprenticeship training under an architect, before attempting the NCARB’s A.R.E. licensing exams. A minimum of 9 exams totaling 36+ hours of testing related to all aspects of design and construction, life safety, health, and welfare of the public in the built environment is required to receive a license.

CAPS Certified Architects or home designers (Certified Aging In Place Specialists)  is a designation sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders. It requires only three days of instruction to qualify. It is a known and understood credentialing & designation in the industry for additional training specific to working with older clients.

Preparation

Walking through the services section will give you the detailed assessment tool for determining specific needs you will want to ask for when seeking a consult with a home designer, or Architect. Take a notebook with your findings with room under each bullet point to write comments from the professional with which you are working.

Evaluation

• Will you manage the bidding of the design and permit drawings, as well as the interviewing and selection of a General Contractor for your remodel, addition, or new home?
• Define the types of licenses you hold; Architect, or home designer; CAPS Certified, or other-wise credentialed?
• Define complete fee structure.
• Hourly Rate(s), Percentage of Construction Cost, Flat Fee, NTE “Not To Exceed”
• What does their Fee include? Is that to the point of Permit submittal level drawings & documents? What’s included in “Full Service”? Can it be done more “A La Carte”?
• Are drawings submitted for permitting? Interview Contractors with you? Provide Construction Observation?
• Provide a few recent (last 2 years) project client references that can be contacted.

Planning & Design Articles

• How to Prepare Your Home for Aging in Place - Did you know that studies show that only 1 percent of homes are aging in place ready? Yet, if you don’t live in an environment that can support you, studies show that over 75% of seniors who are hospitalized by a fall, it is because of an accident in the… …Read More
• Aging in Place: Growing Old at Home - The stairs are getting so hard to climb. Since my wife died, I just open a can of soup for dinner. I've lived here 40 years. No other place will seem like home. These are common issues for older people. You may share the often-heard wish — “I want to… …Read More
• Aging in Place: Living Sustainably Helps our Southern Resident Killer Whales - On Thursday, April 4th, Q13 Fox ran a special on our Southern Resident Killer Whales. For those of you who may not know, fighting for these icons of the Pacific Northwest has been a huge part of my life. Growing up in Anacortes as I did, as a small child… …Read More
• Aging in Place checklists - If you or a senior loved one are aging in place, here are some checklists to make your living environment safer for your aging years. Featured here are checklists for the exterior and interior of your home and a home-care provider checklist. Aging in Place: Exterior Checklist Walkways and Sidewalks… …Read More
• Is Aging in Place Right For Your Parent? - Recent Studies indicate that 95% of seniors want to “age in place” in their aging years as opposed to retirement living. With the advancement of services for seniors, technology and home design, more and more seniors have the option to do just that. To many seniors, moving away from home… …Read More
• Advocating for Your Parent: Are they a Good Fit to Age in Place? - If you are reading this, no doubt you are in the shoes I was in for six years as I cared for my own mother until she passed away in 2011. Today I look back and see how I began to find my own stride as her caregiver, and as… …Read More
• Infographic: Is Your Senior Loved One Aging in Place? - Celebrate Spring! Make it a family event! Organize a spring cleaning party Create an indoor herb garden Plant spring flowers Clean up their yard See the infographic for more ideas! …Read More

Planning Radio Show Segments

• Why Caregivers Need Care Bloom for Aging in Place

  Lindsay Friedman and Shannon Lyons join Suzanne to talk about peace of mind and other reasons for getting their innovative health monitoring system Care Bloom to help senior loved ones age in place in their homes.

  Listeners, sign up for free to win one year of Care Bloom! Care Bloom is holding drawings in June and September 2024. There’s no obligation or commitment to purchase. Learn more at https://carebloom.com.

  Lindsay explains the need for Care Bloom. “It’s really important because people want to stay in their homes. People are aging much more rapidly than they have been. Caregiving is on the rise. Caregiving is a very hard challenge that we all are going to have to face as our parents are aging. And also our [number of] home health workers are decreasing. If you want it, that cost is increasing. So there’s less of them, and it’s only going to get more and more expensive to have somebody come and help. It’s going to be unaffordable if you could even find somebody. And on top of that, our nursing homes are struggling. The care is not good, the cost is increasing. I see a lot of future closings, and where are you gonna put mom? So we need something that can really help. And Care Bloom is a great care partner to help with care for their family.”

  Care Bloom is a $199 per month subscription, and you get the hardware for free. Shannon says, “This is something that we spent quite a bit of time on, because it is a hardware, right? We provide a smart watch. We provide hardware for the rooms, but we really wanted to make it an easy purchasing decision for a family.”

  Multiple family members can use the app. “If brother and sister want it, and then you want a neighbor to have a little bit less [access], that’s an option as well. So the app allows you to add as many people as you want, because obviously we can’t all be with mom at one time. So we want to make sure that we’re giving you the opportunity to provide all the care you can.”

  Hear more podcasts about aging in place.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

• Tracking Mobility and Health Data for Senior Loved Ones

  Through the use of a watch, room sensors, and an app, Care Bloom provides 24/7 health monitoring services for caregivers. Lindsay Friedman and Shannon Lyons join Suzanne to talk more about the Care Bloom watch and app, an innovative new tool to assist senior loved ones with aging in place.

  Listeners, sign up for free to win one year of Care Bloom! Care Bloom is holding drawings in June and September 2024. There’s no obligation or commitment to purchase. Learn more at https://carebloom.com.

  Shannon describes the information a caregiver can see on the app. “We really want to pull the most important information forward for a caregiver. You’re gonna be able to see information like vitals, so that would include temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. You’re also going to be able to see accurate location data, where they’re spending most time, if they’re in the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and really how how the mobility looks throughout the home. And then the last one is, you’re going to be able to see important health behavioral data.

  “We know that there’s a lot of smart watches on the market that tell you you’re going to get this health and wellness data. How we’re different is that we take that health data, and we put it in the context of behavioral. And those things look like sleep, mobility, or steps throughout the home, and then self-care, like toileting and bathroom, so that you can really be proactive in your care. You’re not finding out that mom hasn’t left her bedroom for six hours and you’re getting off of work and saying, ‘mom, what’s going on.’ You’re going be able to see that there’s stagnation, and maybe something’s wrong, so that you can communicate earlier, find out what’s going on, and be more proactive with what your next steps are. We also thought it was really important to be able to set alerts in the home. So if there’s a restricted room — a room that is a fall risk, like the basement, garage, or stairwells, we want to be able to tell you, hey, mom’s out in the basement right now, and you can call her and say, ‘hey, I’m coming over after work to do laundry. I see that you’re in the basement. Let’s make sure you get up those stairs,’ so that you’re not finding out about it after that. Or if your loved one has issues with leaving the home at times that they’re not supposed to, or maybe wandering, we want to make sure that elopement is part of the alert package, so that it really is sort of all of those behaviors. And then if your loved one needs assistance, they can actually request it through their watch. And that notification goes directly to your app. It’s a push notification, and you can see mom needs help, she’s currently in the bathroom, and you’re able to make a plan for what’s next.”

  Lindsay gave an example of Care Bloom solving a problem. “We had one individual who was talking about how lightheaded he was, and feeling fatigued, and he was an elderly gentleman, and you start to wonder what’s going on. His vital signs were looking good, but after watching him for a series of days, we were noticing that there were no toilet activities. So, went in and kind of monitored him for a little bit, and he wasn’t drinking. No one was there reminding him it’s time to have a glass of water, it’s time to drink during the day. And dehydration really plays heavily on our seniors with confusion and all of that. It was an easy thing to remedy, that we were able to see within a matter of days. No doctor trip, nothing. And it was a quick fix that, just from looking at the data, was able to be resolved.”

  Hear more podcasts about aging in place.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

• Introducing Care Bloom Health Monitoring for Senior Loved Ones

  Lindsay Friedman and Shannon Lyons from Care Bloom join Suzanne to talk about an innovative new home-monitoring tool to assist senior loved ones with aging in place, living independently in their later years. Through the use of a watch and app, Care Bloom provides health monitoring services for caregivers. You’ll be able to purchase Care Bloom beginning in June.

  Sign up for free to win one year of Care Bloom! Care Bloom is holding drawings in June and September 2024. There’s no obligation or commitment to purchase. Learn more at https://carebloom.com.

  Lindsay explained how Care Bloom came about. “All through college, I was a state-tested nursing assistant. So, with the experience, when my grandma needed to a family caregiver, I got designated to take that role. While she was in Cleveland, where we are from, I was taking care of her in the home. But she did want to go back to Florida where, once she got to Florida there, we got her aid. So she had a rough time. And my grandma would complain to me, and say they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do. They’re not there when I wake up at night. The caregivers were saying she’s confused, it’s night time, and was already in her nineties, so that was the case. Well, one night she was calling out for them in her room, and asking them to come and help her, and they couldn’t hear because they were asleep in her guest bedroom. So she decided to get up on her own to go use the restroom, and she fell, and she broke her femur. And that ended her time at home. It ended up being what caused the end of her life. And, you know, my story is a common one. It is more common than not. So I decided that there has to be something that we can do, to make sure that grandma and mom can be home. I’ve got to do something, and Care Bloom was born.”

  Shannon describes Care Bloom. “It is a monitoring system. Your loved one wears a watch. It actually looks very similar to a Fitbit. So this is not a medical device. It’s very cool looking. And there’s actually a lot of really lovely data that most people actually get in tune with, such as what their daily activities look like. That’s the watch. Each room has an anchor which is connected to an outlet. So you just plug it into an outlet in each of the rooms that you want monitored. You have a gateway, and that gateway sends all of the information to your app. So as a caregiver, you’ll use the Care Bloom app. And it really gives you a snapshot of what your loved one’s daily activities are, and their health status.

  “So, really quick, you’re able to see on one page page, everything’s green, Mom’s good to go, and you can go about your day. It’s more insight than we’ve ever had, in some ways, on their behaviors. You could also send reminders to your loved one, that goes to their watch. So, ‘mom, hey, it’s time to take those meds.’ And so we’re really looking at care plan compliance. We’re looking at supporting health behaviors, and making sure that there’s some accountability. So if your loved one does have a home health worker, you can actually designate tasks for that worker and confirm that they occur. So if medication should be taken at 10 a.m., they should be checking into the kitchen and taking that med. If mom’s not in the mood for a shower, they’re able to say, hey, you know what, she was not in the mood to take a shower today, it did not occur, so that the next day when the health worker comes, they know what that week look like. So it’s a lot of interesting data.”

  Lindsay says, “Our largest goal, which really is probably impacting all of your listeners right now, is we’re trying to improve the process of caregiving.”

  Hear more podcasts about aging in place.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

• Building or Modifying for an Aging-in-Place Friendly Home

  If you or your relatives want to build a new structure, or get modifications done on your house, there are resources to make sure that the builders are doing it right. Dr. Jill Bjerke joins Suzanne to talk about aging in place constructions as part of this month’s Specialist Spotlight on Aging in Place.

  A home assessment at silverspaces.com provides guidelines and recommendations to design an aging in place home, like lever handles on doors and faucets, a raised dishwasher so you don’t have to bend down so far, a stove that has controls in the front, a low-maintenance exterior, things you ordinarily wouldn’t think about with new construction.

  Dr. Jill says, “You can’t predict your future. I had knee surgery, I had joint replacement. And boy, did that give me a firsthand view of what it’s like to have to use a walker, and to have to shuffle, and… I have stairs. I shouldn’t have stairs. How am I going to get up and down the stairs? So this assessment really gives you a picture of what you could be facing in the future if you’re not thinking about it.”

  Learn more at silverspaces.com. Hear more podcasts about Silver Spaces with Dr. Jill Bjerke.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

• Take an Aging-in-Place Safety Assessment: What Happens

  Silver Spaces is an online home safety assessment tool with a lot of research behind it. It works by taking you through each of your rooms, have you answer questions, and get educated along the way. For this month’s Specialist Spotlight on Aging in Place, Dr. Jill Bjerke joins Suzanne to talk about the benefits of Silver Spaces.

  Only 25% of people who suffer from a broken hip are able to return home after they recover. The biggest injury that older adults incur comes from trips and falls, and they are preventable. A $39.95 assessment at Silver Spaces (silverspaces.com) could mean the difference between a good quality of life and living in a senior living community.

  Dr. Jill says, “I’ve been in the senior services realm for 18 years. I own a downsizing company; I had so many people tell me they wish they didn’t have to move that. I spent about nine years researching and creating this electronic product, which is an electronic home safety assessment. I talked to gerontologists, researchers, city planners, interior designers, just about anybody you can think of, to try and come up with a content for their safety assessment. I was trying to cover as many bases as I could. So a lot of research and a lot of work went into creating this. It’s SilverSpaces.com and it explains what it is and how to use it. The whole purpose is to go from whatever room — there’s 18 rooms and places you can assess in the house, you can pick which ones you want to do. You just answer the questions, and you get educated as you go along, because you don’t realize that some of those could have been risk places or safety issues. For example, ‘I have a smoke alarm. I can hear it.’ If you have someone with hearing aids, can they hear it when they don’t have their hearing aids in?

  “When you sign up, it will ask you questions about your community, because a lot of people don’t think about how their community may have changed. It may no longer be safe, and then [it] asks general home questions. Do you have a second bedroom for a caregiver? Do you have a second bathroom? Do you have a lot of stairs? Do you have zero thresholds, meaning flat thresholds, are your doorways wide enough for a wheelchair or walker? And then it goes into every single room you can possibly think of. You can pick the room you want to do, and the questions are right there. You just answer them. Do you have sharp countertop edges in your kitchen? Why is that important if you fall? That’s an immediate possibility for a traumatic brain injury. So all of these different kinds of questions that people usually do not think about. And when you’re done, you submit it. And what comes back is either a PDF or a printable version, so that you can have it in your hand. You can send it to a doctor, or a modification professional, or a relative. You can take it to a modification professional and get bids on whatever you think you need to change. So it’s a very very usable product.”

  Dr. Jill adds, “We do the exterior. Not in detail, but we ask things like, do you have a tree that drops berries on your concrete? That’s a slip and fall hazard. Do you have grass that grows over the edges of your sidewalk? That’s a slip and fall hazard. Do you have landscaping that takes a lot of maintenance? That’s an issue. Do you have an overhang where at the door that you come in and out of, because you need protection from the elements. That’s slippery. Do you have a non-slip surface when you step outside?

  “We ask as many questions as we can. But the problem is, if we ask all the questions — I have 300 of them — it would take you a couple of hours to do. So we had to be very selective, and ask the most important questions, which is why I had so many people work on this with me.”

  Learn more at silverspaces.com. Hear more podcasts about Silver Spaces with Dr. Jill Bjerke.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

• Answers to 3 Top Aging-in-Place Questions

  During our lighting round segment on the Answers for Elders radio show, expert Dr. Jill Bjerke joins Suzanne to answer three top questions about aging in place as part of this month’s Specialist Spotlight.

  1. When should anyone start thinking about remaining in their home?

  “Probably as soon as possible. At retirement, before retirement. When you feel unsafe in your home. Really, almost any time is a good time to start thinking about it because there’s so many decisions to be made.”

  2. Who should help someone make a decision on this?

  “Basically, you’d probably start with your family. But you’d surprised how much your friends, churchgoer, friends, neighbors — people who know you well — can look at your house with different eyes. You see it every day, they don’t. You’d be amazed to see things that you aren’t even aware of.”

  3 How do people pay for modifications to the home?

  “It sounds like an intimidating question. It’s not. If you go to the government site National Institute on aging.gov (https://www.nia.nih.gov/), they have a whole host of ideas of where you can look. Every county in the United States has an area agency on aging, AAA as they’re called. They have all kinds of information on aging in place, but they also have information on funding. There are states that are offering grants for home modifications. So you might want to check and see if your state has any of those. You can also use a home equity loan, a reverse mortgage, there are ways to do it. It just depends on what your financial needs are and what is best for you.”

  Learn more at silverspaces.com. Hear more podcasts with Dr. Jill Bjerke at https://answersforelders.com/silver-spaces/doctor-jill-bjerke/.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network at https://www.seniorresource.com/. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/.

• Identify Dangers in Your Home With an Aging-in-Place Assessment

  This month’s Specialist Spotlight on Aging in Place features Dr. Jill Bjerke, the creator of Silver Spaces, an online assessment tool to help you identity safety risks and dangers in your home that you haven’t noticed. If you want to remain in your home in your later years, Dr. Jill talks talks about many of the risks you can avoid.

  Dr. Jill says, “Every 20 minutes, according to the National Institutes of Health, an adult over 65 dies from a fall. That is so unnecessary. Things like this assessment are out there to identify where trip-and-fall hazards are. And they can be so insidious. You walk over that same darned carpet every day, and you don’t realize the edge is frayed. And now, all of a sudden, a zipper catches on it, and you go down. It shouldn’t be that way.”

  Learn more at silverspaces.com. Hear more podcasts with Dr. Jill Bjerke at https://answersforelders.com/silver-spaces/doctor-jill-bjerke/.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network at https://www.seniorresource.com/. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/.

• What Are Your Plans for Aging? Crucial Questions to Ask Yourself for Staying at Home

  Dr. Jill Bjerke, CEO of Silver Spaces, joins Suzanne for this month’s Specialist Spotlight on Aging in Place. People don’t ask these questions enough. We get emotionally attached to a locale, and while our health and lifestyle changes, our home stays the same. Tasks that seem so simple can become complicated when we age.

  Dr. Jill says, “Aging in place is different than people think. It’s not, “I’m gonna live in my home forever.” There are a lot of decisions that have to be made. The biggest ones are things like finance, transportation, health, socialization, all of those things you need to think about either at retirement, before retirement. What am I gonna do about my finances? I’m still gonna have maintenance on my house.  I’m still gonna have to pay someone to shovel my snow. How’s my health? Is it good enough for me to stay home or will it deteriorate in the future? What if I can’t drive? How am I gonna get places? How am I gonna get church, get my hair cut, whatever. What options are there? Are there senior services in your town? And then obviously socialization, that’s the biggest barrier to aging in place is becoming isolated. So how can you avoid that? Is your church close enough where you can walk? Do you play bingo? Do you play cards? Can you get there? Can someone pick you up? Meeting with other people is absolutely vital to longevity.”

  When should you start this planning? “It really should start when you’re thinking ahead about retirement, because that’s the time to think about. When you get to your seventies or eighties, all of a sudden it becomes, ‘Can I stay here?’”

  Learn more at silverspaces.com. Hear more podcasts with Dr. Jill Bjerke at https://answersforelders.com/silver-spaces/doctor-jill-bjerke/.

  Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network at https://www.seniorresource.com/. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/.

• Real Estate After a Senior Passes

  Real Estate 55 Plus provides a spectrum of services for seniors. Real Estate 55 Plus CEO Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about what typically happens when a senior loved one passes and leaves a house in probate.

  “When we’re gonna go into the home, I would say 25% of the time the personal representative or the executor doesn’t live in the state or the city where the property is at. They may have never even have seen it depending on the circumstances. So we’re going to come in and do an evaluation on the home, and we’re going to give a comparative market analysis that says what the home value is worth.

  “And we’re gonna provide up to four options for the executor for the estate, with the first one being selling the home off market. People say, well, why would you do that? Well, typically in a seller’s market, sellers aren’t gonna take that option and we would typically recommend not for an executor to do executor to do that. But if we’re in a buyer’s market or the property has a lot of deferred maintenance, it may be the best option for the estate.

  “Option number two would be do a pre-inspection on a home and disclose the issues, but don’t do any work. And option three could be, do a pre-inspection and do some work so you’re gonna increase the net proceeds. And number four would be to do a full remodel. So we give those options to the executor.

  “Typically, the decisions are made based on how much we return on investment and time. Those are the two big, you know, indicators I think for the person that’s going through that process and making decisions. If there are multiple beneficiaries, there’s a lot of family dynamics. So we not only work on the real estate, we not only work on the real estate side, but we’re the, we’re the, we’re the problem solvers. We’re coming in and we’re, we’re working with the executor honoring the deceased person’s wishes. And, you know, we don’t know the family dynamics and they share those with us. So we want to be really sensitive to everybody else that’s part of the process.”

  You can reach Juli Anne Gibson at (800) 964-1553 or https://realestate55plus.com/.

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

• What Keeps Seniors From Downsizing

  Seniors are waiting longer before they make a change. For many, they wait so long that they end up limiting their options. They have a fall, are injured to an extent that they’re no longer able to live independently, and now have a crisis to move. Real Estate 55 Plus CEO Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about what holds people back, the biggest questions people ask about downsizing, and provides an example of a family that faced a moving crisis.

  Juli Anne says, “It’s amazing what you don’t see when you live in your own home. When you have somebody with fresh eyes coming in, we can see all of the possible hazards in somebody’s home. That includes not just the house itself, but someone’s physical presence. Oftentimes people are dehydrated, or malnourished, or their balance is off. And so they’re not taking care of themselves in the way that they could so they could live independently longer.”

  What holds people back from downsizing? Juli Anne says, “I think it depends. I think a lot of it’s not knowing, it’s the unknown. And I think in the United States, we really pride ourselves on independence. When we’re teaching workshops, one of the questions we ask is, have you made a plan for housing and aging and overwhelming? We hear people say, ‘I want to stay in my home until you take me out feet first.’ And I always say, what’s the plan for you being able to stay in your current home? And what we find is a lot of times a senior is only living in maybe 25 – 35% of their home. And the reason they don’t want to move it because they don’t know how they could possibly do that and. Oftentimes when we come in, and we can show them these are the options available to you, and this is how you could do it, it’s a relief for people. Our, goal is that someone make good decisions and proactive decisions about housing and aging.”

  You can reach Juli Anne Gibson at (800) 964-1553 or https://realestate55plus.com/.

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

• All About Aging With Choice Workshops

  If you’re thinking about moving, Real Estate 55 Plus conducts valuable Aging With Choice workshops. Founder and CEO Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about working with families, real estate agents, executors, and estate planners. She talks about how the workshops work, then provides a great example of a senior who took the workshop and how it led to her moving choices.

  Juli Anne says, “We really are passionate about seniors and we would love for everybody to have a plan about housing and aging. That’s really what we would love. And we understand that everybody is in a different stage in their lives when they come to us. So Aging With Choice workshops, we offer free, and we host them at retirement communities at fire stations, llibraries, anywhere that we can gather. It is a workshop in the sense that you’re gonna leave with something that you’re gonna be working on. But we’re gonna give you the steps of what you’re gonna be working on to make good decisions about housing and aging.”

  “The first 30 years of your life, you’re deciding what you want, what you like, and then you spend the next 30 years accumulating it. Then the last part of your life, you’re getting rid of it. And for so many people, that process is what stops them from moving forward. We talk about how you can do that successfully, and we even have tools that you can use. And people can actually access that information on our website. They can download a request form and we’ll mail out that packet to them.”

  “We partner with senior housing advisors who really understand the different options that are available, how much they’re gonna cost, what level of service they’re gonna provide. And in 95% of the cases, those services are free to seniors. We’re referring all the time to our senior housing advisors, because they do the leg work for our senior clients and their families. So once we meet with the family, and we have a really clear understanding of their finances, what types of services they’re going to need for both physical or possibly mental, what they love doing, and what are their passions and desires, and then that senior housing advisor will say, based on that criteria, these are the communities or the options that are available to you.”

  You can reach Juli Anne Gibson at (800) 964-1553 or https://realestate55plus.com/.

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

• All About Real Estate 55 Plus

  If you’re a senior living in a home that’s not working for you, and you need to make a change, but don’t know what the next steps are, specialized services for seniors are available at Real Estate 55 Plus. Founder and CEO Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about working with families, real estate agents, executors, and estate planners. She talks about creating a roadmap to minimize the stress involved in moving, particularly for those over 55.

  Juli Anne says, “Oftentimes people don’t know the options that are available to them. So we teach those Aging With Choice workshops, and then we have clients that were really working more with the adult child, and there’s been a crisis, mom or dad fell and are no longer able to go home and live alone by themselves. You get called in and really, it’s kind of triage at that time. And then we work a lot with executors and executors for estates. So someone has real estate that they need to sell with the probate process. We step in and most people are just overwhelmed with what that emotionally and financially and all the above just trying to figure out how to deal with all of this overwhelm when you’ve had a horrible loss.”

  “We actually have a client that’s been living in a home for a long time and recently has moved to assisted living. And most of our seniors, their major asset is the equity in their home. They don’t have the funds to pay for an assisted living or retirement community or memory care. So we offer gap funding, and we pay that directly to the community, so the senior can move in, and then we do any of the needed repairs or refresh on the property so we can maximize their net proceeds. And then we get reimbursed at closing for paying for that gap funding. And we don’t charge an interest rate for that. There’s not a minimum or maximum amount of time.”

  Juli Anne adds, “We recommend to our clients that we do what we call a pre-listing inspection of the home. Not only will that provide information for our senior clients, so they can make good decisions on repairs, if it makes sense to do a refresh or make repairs, because they’re gonna get a return on investment.But it’s also really great to provide that information to a buyer, so they can make good decisions on writing offers. And then we know when we list a property, we can fully disclose any of the issues with the home.”

  8:30-9:10 set the stage… style of the home based on the buyer… work with the family… variety of products we can provide based on senior circumstance, save the most time, make the most money

  “50% of the seniors that we work with don’t have their legal matters in place. And so their plan is no plan, and that is a plan. So they’re waiting for a crisis to happen. They aren’t aware of the documents that they need, and who they need to appoint for those…”

  “When they have a plan, number one, I think it just gives you peace of mind knowing, hey, if, if I’m no longer able to make decisions, this person’s gonna make those for me and they know what my decisions are. So when we get called in to work with the senior, and all the family or the friends know what the plan is, we don’t have to do a lot of the triage… We have about 72 different types of services organizations that we partner with, and depending on someone’s unique road map for housing and aging, we plug in those services for them.”

  You can reach Juli Anne Gibson at (800) 964-1553 or https://realestate55plus.com/.

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

• Plotting a Road Map For Rightsizing

  Founder and CEO of Real Estate 55 Plus Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about the unique services that her company provides for people over 55.

  Juli Anne says, “We know that in real estate, it’s really about the relationships with the people. It really is not about the house, because it doesn’t become a home until the people reside in and create the space that they want. So we come from a place of proactivity. The primary focus is to find out what the seniors’ goals are. And then we create a road map for how they’re going to age, and where they’re going to live. And for the most of the people that we work with, they’re gonna be selling their current home, and they’re gonna be right-sizing. So they may move from a large home to a condominium. They may might move into multi-generational living. They may be exploring assisted living, retirement communities.

  “But one thing people don’t know about what we do, is there are about 72 potential services that we can recommend and refer to a family and for seniors, so that they can make really good decisions. One of the examples is, as a necessity with COVID, we started offering estate sale services. It’s not for profit. We just charge for the labor and the dump fees, and marketing promotion. Any proceeds we make go back to the family. We’ve created a system so we have realtors that are in different states, they can actually access that program and provide estate sell services to clients in their areas, or we’re gonna tell them how they can partner within an estate sale company.

  “Oftentimes, what prevents a senior from moving forward is lack of funding. Some people want to move to a retirement community, but all of their assets are tied up into the equity of their home real estate. 55 Plus will pay that gap funding to the retirement community at no interest. And we get reimbursed from the sale of the proceeds from the house. So our goal is to get the person settled where they need to be. We will go as far as getting the whole place set up for them, and hiring the movers, and getting it all set up for that. It’s not just a real estate piece of it, it has to do with the housing, and aging, and making sure people are in really good spaces.”

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  Lead image: Photo by Kampus Production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-man-and-woman-looking-outside-window-7551662/

• Home Maintenance Tips to Help Age in Place

  Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about home maintenance, which not only keeps a senior safe, it can defer expenses, or increase the value of our home. Maintaining a home can help seniors aging in place in their homes for as long as they can. Juli Anne is the founder and CEO of Real Estate 55 Plus.

  About maintenance, Juli Anne says, “It not only keeps the senior safe, but it also can defer expenses, or it can increase the value of your home. Oftentimes if we’re coming in, doing an assessment, there’s been lack of maintenance on systems and the property itself, which are gonna cost a lot more money than it would have had they been preventative. And as we age, we don’t see smell or hear things that we might have when we were younger. They’re giving us clues that there’s an issue in our home.

  “The furnace is probably first, because we’re going into the fall right now. Having your furnace checked is super important. You make sure that it, it’s working properly, so you have adequate heat coming on. But you also want to make sure that you have your air ducts cleaned out, for two reasons. One is if your air ducts get clogged, especially your dryer, that can start a fire. Number two is, if you have allergies at all, and it’s clogged in your air ducts or in your vents in your bathrooms, that can cause all kinds of havoc on your breathing.

  “With the roof, if you have an area that has a lot of moss, it’s just ugly to look at, but it expands and contracts, and that’s what causes the shingles to deteriorate. So having moss removed, having someone inspect your roof, looking for either cracked shingles, or flashing, or a rain cap that’s missing. So that helps with any leak prevention, coming into your home. They can also take a look at your gutters and make sure that they’re not full. Full gutters cause water spills. What do water spills do? They wreck havoc on siding and windows and intrusion into basements.

  “As far as walking with moss, it becomes very, very slippery and slick when it’s wet. So making sure that someone’s coming in and removing the moss from your sidewalks, and your stairs, and your decks, is super important to make sure that you have a clean space to be able to walk.”

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  Lead image: Photo by Magda Ehlers: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-a-pavement-overgrown-with-moss-15260090/

• Easy Tips to Prevent Falling at Home

  Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about home safety, and a key aspect of this for seniors is fall prevention. Being injured in a fall is the number one reason seniors aren’t able to go back their homes and live independently. 75% of home falls are preventable. It’s the simple things that cause falls or tripping, there are easy things to do to prevent them. Juli Anne, founder and CEO of Real Estate 55 Plus, talks about how to assess your home for the future to “age in place” and “right-size” your living domain.

  Juli Anne says, “We work a lot with the Red Cross. The Red Cross actually has a Fall Prevention program, and they will come in and assess your home. So we follow their guidelines on what we can recommend to a senior, and we’re teaching workshops, we will provide that information to them.

  “When we age, our sight changes, our hearing changes, our sense of smell, our balance, and our touch. So what we used to be able to see in front of us, now oftentimes it will look like a black hole. And so, walking through your home, you’re saying, am I seeing this as a continuation, or does it look like a stair to myself? So if you have carpets, rugs that are a darker or lighter color than your other flooring, you may want to consider removing those. Because at some point, you may think that’s a hole, and you’re gonna try to step over it, and you’re gonna fall. We see that happen quite a bit.

  “Getting out of their bathtubs, you have all kinds of grab bars that come in permanent or semi-permanent installation, a whole package in a movement called Universal Design. So you can retrofit your home, so that you can age successfully as possible… If you have chronic arthritis and it’s going to get worse, or you have a flare up, you want to make sure that doors and handles are easy for you to maneuver. So not a round handle, but a lever-style handle.

  “If you can spend five or 10 minutes a day on balance, there are some chair exercises that you can download online, or get a video for. You can also go to a local YMCA or gym that’s going to focus on balance, and also your core. For many of us, when we start getting tipsy, if we have really good balance, it’s gonna prevent a fall. And with our core, if we can have that strength, and we’re back, it’s gonna have a huge, huge impact on our being able to regain balance.”

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  Lead image: Photo by Kampus Production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-and-elderly-man-sitting-on-bed-7551671/

• Will Your Home Support You As You Age?

  Founder and CEO of Real Estate 55 Plus Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to kick off the topic of environmental wellness: surrounding yourself with an environment that brings you joy; being in an environment that supports you; living sustainably and being mindful of the world we live in. This is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, featured as part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

  Juli Anne says, “Let’s specifically talk about environmental wellness for seniors. Number one, our home is where we create family and community and connection. And as we age, we’re gonna be seeing people leaving our homes coming back and returning to visit us. And we’re wanting to have a space that feels comfortable, brings back memories and that’s gonna honor the senior themselves. So we’re working with someone who’s currently in their home and they’re moving someplace else. We want to recreate that space for them. So it feels like home because home is a feeling it’s the people around you. It’s not necessarily the house itself. And what and what we know about real estate is it really isn’t about the houses. It’s about the people, and the people are what create a home. And that’s the fundamental basis of where we start with the senior and their families, is what their priorities are. So we can make sure we help them make good decisions on that journey for housing and aging.”

  Seniors have many options. “We teach Aging With Choice workshops, where we look at all the different options that are available to somebody. And there’s a wide scope. Of course, we’re gonna look at their financial, their emotional, spiritual, and physical, that’s gonna help define really the base point of what they’re gonna be looking for, and searching for, whether they want to age in their current home or move someplace else. The options are endless.”

  Juli Anne adds, “When we sit down with somebody, we’re looking at their uniqueness, and we’re looking at what makes the most sense for them. Oftentimes you don’t know what you don’t know, until you sit down with us and we help you create that road map. Oftentimes people say, I wish that we had pulled you in a year sooner, because all of these resources we wish we had known about, because trial and error, we found our way. So we help seniors and their families create a road map, so that they can age and how successfully and have a sense of well-being, right? The home is the most important part of our lives, because it’s where we live.”

  Learn more:
  * Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
  * Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
  * Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

  Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

  Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
  Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

  Lead image: Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-woman-reading-on-the-table-5585249/

• Caregiver App Detects Changing Behaviors

  Innovator Ryan Herd joins Suzanne to talk about how technology is advancing for later life care. The good news is that machine learning lets us start helping caregivers with the appropriate uses of technology. A good example is the video doorbell. Cameras or listening devices inside are inappropriate, but outside is great, it lets them see who’s outside, whether it’s an Amazon delivery guy with a package, grandson coming over, or someone she doesn’t know.

  Other solutions are in the pipeline to help caregivers have a bit more peace of mind, to give you some extra time. Let’s say mom routinely vacuums on Wednesdays, but over time we see that she’s stopped doing that, starting to forget taking her pills, or moving around less, forgetting to close doors, perhaps these could be signs of a mobility issue or Alzheimer’s. Even if you see your loved one all the time, they’re never going to tell you that they’re having trouble. That doesn’t happen; they always say they’re fine, they don’t want to burden you.

  Caregiver Smart Solutions sets up very simply. You buy the core kit, then scan a QR code that downloads the app to your phone. You plug in the hub, then peel and stick sensors around the house. The hardest thing is what do you call that sensor, grandma’s room, living room, family room? That’s up to you.

  Technology helps seniors living in their homes longer. Pay attention to what’s out there. This gives you both freedom. As sons and daughters, sisters and wives, something like this is so in the background, it’s passive, but it’s important.

  To learn more, visit Caregiver Smart Solutions or call 888-585-5022. Use code AFE10 to get 10% off core kits.

• How Caregiving App Provides Peace of Mind

  Innovator Ryan Herd joins Suzanne to talk about how we can help to make sure that our loved ones are safe, be connected to them if they’re in a trouble situation, while they maintain their dignity and age in place in their home, which is so valuable and important.

  So many people say, “Just put a camera in the house.” That won’t work — nobody wants to be on camera, nobody wants to have their privacy violated. Caregiver Smart Solutions adds a measure of safety while retaining dignity and respect for seniors.

  Let’s say mom gets up to go the bathroom, and falls on the way. What happens is that you’ll get an alert on your phone. In this case, that’d be a big thing, and you’d want to call mom, call the neighbor, or whatever that might be. You can’t be there all the time, even if you have someone coming to the home to help with activities of daily living. There are 268 hours in a week, and you can’t be there every moment to make sure mom’s OK.

  If you get a phone call while putting groceries in the fridge, and accidentally leave the door open, it’ll beep after a few minutes to alert you. As we get older, our hearing worsens, and we can no longer hear the frequency of those beeps. If that happens with your mom, she doesn’t hear the beeping, and maybe she goes back to the kitchen a few hours later to find that the fridge was left open. Did her food go bad? Will she eat spoiled food? If she’s 97, she lived through the Depression, she’s not going to throw out anything. With Caregiver Smart Solutions, you’d get an alert about the fridge door being open, and you could call your mom and ask her to check her fridge.

  To learn more, visit Caregiver Smart Solutions or call 888-585-5022. Use code AFE10 to get 10% off core kits.

• Caregiving App Alerts If Loved One Falls

  Innovator Ryan Herd joins Suzanne to talk about providing hope, dignity and a sense of wellness for aging seniors living alone in their homes.

  You’re doing your best, but you can’t be there all the time to check on your aging loved one. Ryan’s grandmother is in her 90s and lives alone. He developed a non-invasive caregiving app called Caregiver Smart Solutions.

  Sensors about the size of a quarter are placed discreetly around the home. They’re collecting data points, learning about how your loved one moves around during the day. If mom gets up regularly at 6:30 every day, you’d want to know if she was up all night and didn’t get up that morning. Maybe she was just binge-watching Netflix, but you’d just want to know if she’d had a medical emergency. It’s a passive, habit-based system. If you can get mom to wear the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” device, that’s great. Often you can’t. With the sensor system, there are emergency buttons around the house, but if she falls while walking to the bathroom, and can’t get to an alert button, sensors can figure out that mom didn’t make it to the bathroom and can alert you.

  To learn more, visit Caregiver Smart Solutions or call 888-585-5022. Use code AFE10 to get 10% off core kits.

• Innovative Caregiving App Helps Aging Seniors

  We all know somebody or has someone who wants to age in place in their home. Ryan Herd joins Suzanne to talk about how Caregiver Smart Solutions helps families and seniors.

  Ryan first faced caregiving challenges when his father got cancer, and one medicines had to be taken exactly at 24-hour intervals. Ryan would ask if he’d taken it, and couldn’t sure if he had. Thinking of a tech solution, he came to the same conclusion as a lot of people: “Put a camera in that house.” Retrospectively, the worst idea, as it was invasive. His father covered the camera with a dish towel — nobody wants to be on camera 24/7.

  Ryan eventually developed a suite of sensors, which doesn’t use cameras or require loved ones to wear anything. As a caregiver, he needed an easy way to get clarity of care. These sensors monitor the loved one’s habits over time and can alert a caregiver when something unusual happens.

  To learn more, visit Caregiver Smart Solutions or call 888-585-5022. Use code AFE10 to get 10% off core kits.