What You Need to Know About Aging in Place and Staying at Home as a Senior Citizen

Increasingly, senior citizens want to exercise their decision to stay at home rather than be forced into an assisted living facility or nursing home.

Many people have the goal of staying inside their home and living independently or with support for as long as they are physically and mentally able to do so. If assistance is required with the activities of daily living, such as eating and toileting, then an outside person could be used to come to the home to help with this care.

Preparation for this kind of in-home care requires a careful evaluation of the person’s current and possible future personal care needs, estate planning documents, and financial needs. A long-term personal care plan should be developed with each family member that is approaching older age. Personal care refers to a broad variety of tasks, such as dressing, toileting, bathing, doctor’s visits, meals, walking, household chores, banking, shopping and paying bills.

You might start off relying on your family members and friends to help you take care of these many different activities. However, your needs could progress to the point where an outside person needs to be engaged to come in to assist with some of the more complicated aspects or provide more regular care.

If aging in place is important to you, you need the estate planning documents set up to ensure that you have a care plan already crafted.

If you don’t currently have a personal long-term care plan developed, schedule a consultation with a trusted attorney who can walk you through the different aspects of preparing your estate and your elder law plans.