A Framework for Aging-In-Place

Lifelong Pursuit of Quality of Life

In my previous posts on April 20 and July 7, I used the term “aging-in-place” to describe a significant area of interest given the ongoing experiences my wife and I are having in caring for her brother in our home as he recovers from strokes while addressing his co-morbidities.

While my brother-in-law is the focus of our attention now, his situation raises the question of what our “aging-in-place” plan looks like. To be forthcoming, we don’t have one. However, given our brother is the first one up for home care, we have a starting point.

This post constitutes the first of several that document my process. To begin, I’m drawing upon three essential elements to define an aging-in-place framework: 

• An overarching healthcare system’s “umbrella” that covers family members’ healthcare needs. It includes a knowledge base about members’ health issues, networks of certified healthcare professionals who can prescribe treatments (mainstream and alternative) to address the health issues, and trained/experienced but not necessarily certified people willing to provide supplementary healthcare support.
  

• A dependable, day-to-day, on-site caregiver/companionship/advocacy network that links with the healthcare network. Each potential network member brings quirks and foibles that require them to continuously negotiate boundary behaviors among themselves so the network functions holistically. Sometimes, these behaviors come wrapped in deep-seated psychological patterns that will warrant constructive attention to work through. However, such is the case within all human systems.
  

• A pool of assets, whether money, property, expertise, or time, so they can be available to cover the basic needs of all caregiver/companionship/advocacy network members, maintenance, and renovations/upgrades as required to meet changing healthcare system demands. Although necessary to ensure ongoing aging-in-place processes, such financial pooling is tricky to put in place and sustain when money is the sole determinant of value delivered by each member.

As I apply this aging-in-place framework within my family and local community, I will track progress in subsequent Substack posts, notes, and chats. Going along, I will attempt to further my understanding of my health issues and those of other family/community members and share what I learn with Substack readers. In addition, I will explore many of the complications that arise in social systems dynamics and document my experiences as a “change agent” who attempts to influence those behaviors while also addressing my own issues.

A related interest is altering how family and community members relate to money so they can experience each other’s value in non-monetary terms. People often go through their lives with unrecognized skills and underutilized capabilities, and those in the social systems I’m closest to are no exception. “Money does not define a person!”

As I mentioned in my July 7 post, I will continue to link with other Substack writers, readers, and commentators on multiple platforms to benefit from feedback and, in return, contribute to an expanding knowledge base about the challenges and rewards of aging-in-place endeavors. That includes referencing the experiences of those I know who are traveling the same road as I. After all, Together We Can!