“Nearly 18 million older adults, or nearly half of everyone 65 or older, report that they need some assistance with routine daily activities”. Read more here.
When we are planning our retirement many people don’t realize this is a perfect time to start preparing an “Aging Plan”. It’s never too early to start thinking and discussing goals and desires for our post-retirement years. Many people avoid talking about the elephant in the room because of two reasons:
- We can not predict how we age, we may not need any help.
- If we don’t talk about it won’t happen
The reason we need to talk about aging and especially our own aging is because leaving full control to someone who never agreed to take on the role leaves us desperate on someone else and this leaves most aging persons angry and upset.
What is an aging support system? An aging support system is a person or persons that you have identified as someone you trust and feel comfortable with being a decision-maker for you if you are unable to make a decision for your care. The identified support system must agree to this job and boundaries need to be addressed. Where are the boundaries for both parties? Where is the support system located? If they are not local is there a plan in the future to move closer to them? If not, you need to be prepared to form a relationship with a Care Manager. Where do you currently live? Do you plan on downsizing or do you need to renovate?
