Putting the HOME in home care. Our goal NOW is to Spread the Word So much is happening. I don’t have to tell you the legislative season has been a roller coaster. Or that some really good ideas about caregiving and care in the home received more attention than ever before. Or that some of the best ideas and hopes will be cut from the packages. For NOW. But next year will be better. HomesRenewed’s good ideas have gotten traction with both Republicans and Democrats this year. Congressional offices said, “Great idea! No bandwidth this session.” We are the only advocacy group focused on the... Continue Reading
Posts Tagged With ‘ Louis Tenenbaum ’
I know you share my passion to serve older adults and help them age in place. The HomesRenewed Coalition is “Putting the Home in Home Care.” We are dedicated to significantly growing the home modifications market through public policy and legislation, and by connecting the wide-ranging business sectors that have shared interests. We are leveraging today’s fast-paced trend to provide more healthcare in the home, which requires that houses are prepared to meet the needs of older adults and their caregivers. With the growing number of Americans choosing to age in place, many businesses and... Continue Reading
Our previous blog post focused on housing as a solution to healthcare challenges. We touched on the stakeholders – insurance, long-term care stakeholders, policy leaders, health professionals, construction industry to name a few. Well it may go without saying but the actual consumers of these services, the aging population, should be invested if they aren’t already. Specifically at HomesRenewed, our target population for our policy proposal is homeowners. This blog post is from 2010, 11 years ago and we STILL need to talk about this issue: we KNOW most people prefer to live out their lives... Continue Reading
This week’s “Back to the Future” blog is from 2015 when Harvard Medical School’s Health Beats included “Housing” at the top of their list for preparing to age safely. Housing isn’t often associated with healthcare even in a pandemic when many people are opting to receive healthcare in the home or via telehealth. Yet housing, the structure where this care is taking place, is vital to successful health outcomes. Housing is a social determinant of health, and the home is the number one location for falls and acquired injuries that result in hospitalizations. With so many stakeholders... Continue Reading
In just four years, telehealth has moved from the fringes to our living rooms. This blog post comes from 2017, not too long ago, but long enough that it is a disappointment that policies have not changed or been implemented to benefit our aging population. H.R. 1780, the Senior Accessible Housing Act, was introduced and subsequently died in the U.S. House of Representatives. We hope new policies will gather momentum, and we will see change on the federal level before another four years pass. The HomesRenewed Coalition hopes to be an agent of change for our aging population and is aggressively lobbying... Continue Reading
The more things change, the more they stay the same. During these COVID days, we took a look at past blogs and realized that they were remarkably prescient. There are many challenges to home modifications and aging in place that are still relevant today – in some cases over a decade later! In fact, one of the legacies of the pandemic is that Americans of all ages have a new appreciation for the importance and limitations of the houses, the structures, in which they live. This summer our blog will explore these issues through Louis’s past blogs, talk about how they may or may not have evolved... Continue Reading
April is Occupational Therapy month! To kick off April we would like to highlight the contributions that occupational therapists make to the home modification and aging in place process. This week we have a guest blog authored by Dr. Scott A. Trudeau, PhD, OTR/L and Hannah Brock. Dr. Trudeau is the Productive Aging Practice Manager at the American Occupational Therapy Association in Bethesda, Maryland, and Hannah is our intern and an Occupational Therapy Doctoral student from Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Illinois. When thinking about retirement and the aging process, most people envision... Continue Reading
Aging in place is a housing and healthcare option that integrates design, equipment and services to provide the opportunity and ability to safely remain in the home of your choice even as your health and mobility changes. Aging in place works best when people proactively prepare their home environments before accidents or injuries occur. These preparations can range from simple modifications, such as installation of grab bars, to more complex modifications, such as widening hallways, installing elevators, or altering cabinet heights. Aging in place relies on a comprehensive and dynamic management... Continue Reading
We know aging in place is the preferred living situation for older adults – over 80% of adults say they plan to live out their lives in their own homes. While aging in place has many benefits, it would be an understatement to say it has been hard this last year. Quarantine fatigue and social isolation directly affect mental health and quality of life, especially for those living alone. Older adults have experienced decreased access to healthcare services making it difficult to make doctor’s appointments and get the care needed to stay healthy and well. However, reimbursement changes and use... Continue Reading
2020 taught us many lessons about our healthcare system and rampant racial inequality in America. One of the biggest lessons learned: we need to take better care of older people who have suffered dreadfully from the pandemic. To date, approximately 40% of the people who’ve died from Covid-19 either lived in or worked at nursing homes and other senior congregate living facilities, that is more than 100,000 deaths. The results of Covid-19 refute the notion that congregate senior housing is the safest place for the elderly. AARP is calling this “An American Tragedy.” Clearly, our work... Continue Reading