| NEWS » |
Rethinking the assisted-living model
10/29/2009 |
|
Earlier this year, Steve Gurney was filling out an application for a small apartment. One of the things his new landlord wanted to know was which funeral home to contact if he died.
Gurney wasn't moving into an ordinary apartment -- he was going to an assisted-living facility, where the units usually are occupied by older people who aren't terribly sick but nonetheless need help with day-to-day activities.
Gurney isn't elderly -- he's 43, married and has two children. He's in good health.
Nonetheless, he was checking into an assisted-living community -- though for only a week -- to catch a glimpse of the experience that has become such a routine part of life for older people in America. He did it because he had realized there was a huge gap in his knowledge, even though he had made a career of advising families on housing and care arrangements for older Americans.
"I was taking my kids to their first day of school a year ago," Gurney said. "They started asking me about my own first day of school, and I was speaking with authority. I dropped them off and drove to my job," he said.
But the conversation with the kids was a reminder of an inconsistency in his life, he thought.
Gurney is founder and publisher of the "Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook," which compiles extensive data on senior-living communities in several East Coast regions.
"It occurred to me I was helping all these people make decisions about moving into senior housing, and it seemed odd that I hadn't experienced it myself," he said. So he decided to walk the walk -- at least as far as he could.
In February, he moved for a week into a Maryland assisted-living residence, with no cell phone, no job contact and no family contact. He followed that in August with a week at a Washington continuing-care retirement community, which offers independent living, assisted-living and skilled-nursing services within one campus.
The second time, he brought along his 6-year-old son, Asa.
He hasn't been the same since, he says.
All content & technical formatting of this template is for use by current DPS agents/ customers only.
Visitors are prohibited from downloading, utilizing, replicating, redistributing, or reselling
any element of this content without written permission from the DPS Group
|
|