SHANNON VINNICK
Sales Associate/REALTOR®
Realty Executives Oceanside
Living in one's home for as long as possible is very desirable for 88% of persons between the ages of 50 and 80. However, over half of them (47%) give their living arrangements little to no thought. Increasing home safety should be the main goal of these changes.
Why is having a safe place to live important for the elderly, and how can you make your home safer as you age?
Let's respond to each of those concerns in order.
There is a demand for increased home safety as people age.
In-home safety is a significant issue that is related to older persons' quality of life as they age because many seniors are choosing to remain in their current residences.
It helps with the following:
According to the findings, older persons who live alone are noticeably more susceptible to fraud, robbery, and burglary. They are increasingly falling prey to con artists. This is just one of many factors that make it essential to provide a safer living environment for senior people.
How to Keep a Senior Safe at Home
Use these methods to achieve security for aging in place.
1. Request a home safety inspection
How do you know what safety measures are lacking in your home? By conducting a home safety audit, of course.
The CEO of The Annuity Expert, Shawn Plummer, claims that "Medicare Part B, one of the health insurance plans in the US, covers home safety inspections. However, for some treatments, you might be required to pay a coinsurance fee for this inspection of 20% of the total cost. During a 'Welcome to Medicare' preventive visit, it is possible to have a home safety evaluation for free.
As an alternative, you could employ experts to evaluate the property's level of safety. The price of this service ranges from $150 to $500 depending on the size and location of the property.
Here is a list of businesses to think about:
What if we told you that you could use just one technique to assess the level of safety for elderly residents in any home? Age Friendly Ireland created a ranking system for landlords and tenants. Any kind of dwelling in an urban or rural setting can use it. Download this age-friendly homes rating system.
2. Make your own aging-in-place checklist (or use a ready made one)
The following is a checklist for an aging-in-place residence that includes room-by-room safety and home accessibility upgrades:
Kitchen
Pull-out shelves, grabber tools, spill-proof cups, appliance timers, automatic turn-off gadgets, plasticware rather than glass, etc. are a few items you may need to consider.
Bedrooms
An adjustable bed, a waterproof mattress protector, a bed rail, a bedside fall mat, a medication organizer, etc. should all be present in a senior-accessible bedroom.
Living room
Look for the following elements in and around the living room to increase home safety for senior citizens aging in place: supportive and durable furniture, well-lit walkways, clear flooring, lift chairs, transfer aids, stand assist handles, etc.
Hallways and entries
A bench is necessary for removing shoes in this location. To make your home accessible for elderly people using wheelchairs and walkers, you might also need to expand doorways and put in ramps.
In general, grab bars in every room and no-slip wax or strips on the floors are smart home safety solutions for senior citizens.
3. Make all necessary repairs and fixes
Check the staircase. Your hardwood floors may have popped nails or loose floorboards. These are the most typical house issues that raise the risk of mishaps.
To identify your demands for home remodeling, you might need to take a tour around the house. Your home may be at risk because of a leaking roof, damaged windows, blocked gutters, or other external factors. It may be necessary to entirely remodel or renovate the house in some circumstances when fixing a roof, door, or window is insufficient, he continues.
Projects for improving a home might be very expensive, yet they are often necessary. Homeowner loans, personal loans, or remortgaging your home are all options for financing property upgrades.
4. Get rid of potential dangers
According to a Home Instead Senior Care research, 65% of US adults said there is at least one potential safety concern in their parents' homes.It is important to remember that falls are a major contributor to both fatal and non-fatal injuries in seniors. In fact, an older adult in the US receives emergency department care for a fall every 11 seconds.
Additionally, senior pet owners are more likely to sustain injuries from falls. Consider taking additional home safety precautions if you are bringing a pet into the house. To keep pet toys and supplies for feeding and watering off of walkways, designate a play area for pets and establish a special place for them.
Let's examine some additional potential dangers to seniors' safety at home:
5. Ensure adequate lighting
According to Jesse Galanis, a content creator for Real Estate Skills, "installing adequate lights is an important step for creating a safe home for a senior person."
"On the one hand, it lessens mobility barriers. However, it is impossible to discount the importance of good illumination for older mental health. It can assist seniors in creating a comfortable environment at home, prevent anxiety and melancholy moods, and enhance sleep, according to him.
You can quickly find some lighting options to improve your mood and sleep. Additionally, you should be aware of the lighting requirements of aging eyes. Up to 6.1 million Americans 65 and older suffer from eyesight loss. People frequently have trouble focusing, adjusting from a darker to a brighter place and vice versa, and distinguishing colors as they get older.
Reduce reflections and shadows, create a smooth light transition from room to room, and choose pleasing room colors (peach, terracotta, gold, brown, bright green, or blue) when updating your lighting.
6. Boosting household security with smart technologies
Why not use smart home technologies to make a property more secure?
Use these advantages:
Devices with smart home technology are essential instruments for elder safety. Not to mention how much they make life easier for seniors.
The ideas for senior household safety covered here can be used as a guide to design a setting that reduces hazards and maximizes the well-being of seniors.
You can age-proof your home and stay on the safest side of life by putting into practice measures like home safety audits, room-by-room checklists, home repairs, potential threat removal, proper illumination, and smart home gadgets.
Let aging bring you happiness and good health!
It may not be pleasant to talk about your estate plan and end-of-life care with your family, but it's necessary to make sure your loved ones are ready to carry out your intentions. Additionally, updating them on any alterations to your estate plan or your choices for long-term care and medical treatment is a good idea by having these conversations frequently (maybe once a year). Everyone will feel more at ease having these kinds of delicate talks if the discussion is more constant.
Here are a few subjects you may wish to bring up with your family from time to time.
Coversations Regarding Estate Planning
Discussions concerning inheritance and legacy tend to be intensely emotional and difficult. However, they can also assist your family in making future plans. It is not a given that your family members will know where your estate documents are kept or what you would like them to do in your absence.
Although sharing your plan's specifics with your family is a personal choice, communicating with them can help you explain the "why" behind your choices. To assist everyone get on the same page and prevent misunderstandings, think about holding a group meeting rather than speaking with family members one-on-one.
Positions and Duties
To make sure the people you've named in your paperwork are comfortable with their tasks, it's crucial to have a conversation with them about their obligations. Give them time to get ready to fulfill your requests and take care of whatever obligations they may have.
If your estate-planning agreements contain a trust, you will designate a trustee to oversee the execution of the trust's provisions, which will involve appropriately investing any trust assets, allocating trust assets in accordance with the rules of the trust, and submitting the necessary tax returns and legal notices. Additionally, you ought to name backup trustees in case the original trustee is unable to fulfill their duties.
The following are some questions to ask yourself when deciding who to name as a trustee or successor trustee:
A health care directive and a power of attorney for financial and medical decisions should also be included in your estate planning documents. You should let the people designated under your powers of attorney know about your estate plans, even if you decide not to tell your relatives. This will allow them to be ready to take legal action on your behalf if needed.
Extended-term Housing and Healthcare Costs
Talk about where you want to go for medical care in the event of an injury or serious sickness with your family and doctor. Do you want to remain at home? If that's not feasible, is there a particular facility you'd rather use? Remember that prices can differ significantly depending on where you stay, so be sure to have enough money or insurance to cover those expenses. It could be a good idea to talk to your financial advisor about whether long-term care insurance is something you should consider.
If you've already made funeral plans, make sure your loved ones have access to the information and paperwork so they can make sure your final wishes are honored. Recall that your family will be better equipped to make the best choices for you if they are aware of your preferences.
Are You Working With a Professional Team?
If yes, think about arranging a meeting for your family and the experts working on your estate plan right away so they may get to know them. Knowing where to go for financial and legal support during emergencies or times of loss could be very helpful to your family.
Creating a plan now and really help your famly down the line, during difficult emotional times.
We've all had the experience: You answer the phone even if you don't recognize the caller's number. The individual answering the phone is friendly, greets you by name, and begins to inquire about your personal or financial situation.
There are some unwanted calls that are more bothersome than hazardous, like those from telemarketers, but there are other calls that might be scams that cause serious identity theft or major financial loss.
Because of this, exercise caution.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has offered the following advice to help consumers stop robocalls that are unwanted and stay away from phone scams:
• Don't take calls from strange numbers. If you do, end the call right away.
• It's possible that the phone number of an incoming call has been fictitiously changed, or "spoofed," to persuade you to pick it up. Remember: Just because Caller ID displays a local number doesn't guarantee the call is coming from a local number. Additionally, hang up the phone if you answer and it's not the person you were expecting.
• Hang up if the caller or a recording urges you to press a button to stop receiving calls after you answer the phone. This tactic is frequently used by scammers to find potential victims.
• Never answer a question with "yes." Scammers might be able to capture the response and use it as a voice signature to approve unauthorized phone charges.
• Never respond to unexpected calls or if you have any reason to be suspicious by giving out personal information, such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mothers' maiden names, passwords, or other identifying information.
• Hang up and contact the number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to check the validity of the request if you receive a call claiming to be from a company or a government agency. A legitimate supplier would typically provide you a written statement before calling you, especially if they are demanding payment.
• If someone is pressuring you for money or information right now, proceed with extreme care.
• If your phone service includes a voicemail feature, be careful to secure it with a password. Some voicemail providers are set up to let you listen to your messages if you dial your own phone number. If you don't create a password, a hacker could impersonate your home phone number and access your voicemail.
• Check into apps that you can download to your mobile device to block incoming calls, and inquire with your phone provider about any call-blocking features it may offer.
Unwanted calls are the federal agency's top consumer complaint, and phone scams are growing more prevalent and inventive, said the FCC.
Keep these suggestions in mind the next time your phone calls. Always err on the side of caution to safeguard your pocketbook and identity.
While achieving world peace is a noble goal, if you want to bring some serenity into your life, start in your bedroom. Your bedroom is more than just a place to sleep; it's also where you wake up, and the atmosphere there can determine how the rest of your day will go. Here are five suggestions for making your bedroom more peaceful.
Pick soothing hues. While you might prefer the fire hues of red or orange, when choosing shades for your room, go with calming, serene colors like light blue or a soft gray.
Choose simple patterns. Keep the unique, interesting patterns for the throw cushions in the living area. Reduce busy patterns in your sleeping area because they can make us feel crowded and stressed.
Get rid of clutter. Keep your bedroom clutter-free, from laundry to large furniture, to make it a haven. Before going to bed, spend a few minutes putting away whatever you took out. Then, lock the closet doors, reposition the books on the shelves, and get ready for bed.
Bring in the natural world. Houseplants can improve mood and increase the amount of oxygen in the space. Place a few low-maintenance plants where you can see them as you wake up, such as a fern or ficus.
Choose the appropriate lighting. Blackout curtains are excellent for blocking obtrusive light, but they can also interfere with your sleep cycles by preventing your body from waking up at its regular time. Find a set of blackout curtains that block out light while allowing you to awaken naturally in the morning.
September 6, 2023 – Flagler County is pleased to announce that the grand opening ceremony of the State Road 100 Pedestrian Bridge will be held at 3:30 p.m. September 19 (Tuesday) and the public is cordially invited to attend.
“We are very excited that the pedestrian bridge is open, and we want to celebrate it with the community,” said County Administrator Heidi Petito. “I’ve been out there and have had the pleasure of meeting people on the trail enjoying the new addition. Some expressed their gratitude the bridge was built because they use the amenity a few times a week.”
While there is no parking at the bridge itself, Flagler County has arranged two options for parking
The bridge, along with its associated two-plus miles of trails and sidewalks that round out the project, link the Lehigh Trail, State Road 100 and Old Kings Road South sidewalks, conservation lands in Graham Swamp, and the Flagler County owned property known as Bulow “Parcel D,” which is currently in the planning and design phase to develop the Bulow Creek Headwaters Regional Park.
The process for the project – that spent years on the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Alternative Priorities ranking list (also referred to as TAP projects) – began in 2018 when the Board of County Commissioners approved the $1.5 million design phase.
The cost of the project, which largely comes from federal and state grant funding, is as follows:
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Read the full article here: https://www.flaglercounty.gov/Home/Components/News/News/906/
