When older people are faced with the question of whether they should stay in their home or move to a senior living community, a recent survey from the Home Safety Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing home-related injuries found most people settle on staying put in their home.
According to an article from the New York Times, staying in their home is not only more comfortable it also makes economic sense. Average annual fees at an assisted living facility where seniors can live independently but also receive a host of services like medication monitoring and meals — is $34,000. And in the nation’s most expensive metropolitan areas, including New York, the costs may be closer to $70,000.
The home “environment can be a great support to independent living,” says Jon Pynoos, professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California. “Or it can be a health care hazard.”
To ensure that staying in their home is safer and easier, an entire service industry is slowly taking shape around the goal of letting people age in place. If you want to make your own home or an older relative or friend’s home a safer, more supportive place to live, here are the NY Times gives you basic guidelines to the most efficient and cost-effective approaches.
