Carol Levine

Assisted living is a term that is often used as though everyone understands it in the same way. But that’s not the case. Assisted living is just a generic term like hotel or automobile that covers a lot of options. Before getting into the specifics, here's a simple definition: Assisted living is a residence where groups of people share meals and other activities and where individuals can receive personal assistance to maintain their independence.

When you’ve completed a safety checklist on your home and made all the easy fixes and repairs, you may find that problem areas still exist for safely aging in place. Some problems may be unsafe conditions, but others may be barriers that make it difficult for you or your relative to move about freely and to enjoy the comforts of home that make him want to stay put in the first place.

Falls and burns aren’t the only sources of injury at home when you or a loved one is aging in place, but if you address them, you’ll likely prevent other kinds of injury as well.An important first step in deciding whether staying in the same home can work is taking a hard look at the home. Looking past a cherished home’s attractive features and focusing on its flaws and hazards can be hard to do.

Planning should be a dynamic process. Where you want to live in your 60s may look very different from where you’ll want to be in your 80s. Your needs change based on your finances, family circumstances, health, and more. Someone considering moving from a single-family house to an apartment or assisted-living facility should think about whether this is a move that can satisfy future needs as well as immediate ones.

If you were born after 1940, you probably grew up in a nuclear family: mother, father, 2.3 children. Maybe grandparents or other relatives lived nearby but not under the same roof. Although the nuclear family seemed the norm for middle-class Americans, it was actually an aberration lasting only a few decades. For most of human history, family members of all ages lived together, and they continue to do so in much of the world.

Another program worth investigating is the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). Although supported by both Medicare and Medicaid, participants do not have to be dually eligible for both programs. However, according to the National PACE Association, more than 90 percent of participants are dually eligible.

You’ve decided. Multigenerational living, with its pros and cons, is a good solution to your needs. You’ve done all the planning, designing, remodeling, and negotiating. Now it’s time for the move. Moving is one of life’s major stressors, way up there with illness and divorce, so take time to organize this event.

Most of the work of downsizing involves sorting, organizing, decision making, and disposing of the things you no longer need or want. Hard enough, but unless you recognize the emotional toll this process can take, it will be even more difficult. It’s not just the items with obvious personal history such as wedding photos or grandparents’ silverware; it’s often ordinary items that bring back memories of childhood or places that you visited.