Senior services are not the bright and flashy attractive things to talk about, the way the early retirement years of trips, dining out, and spending time playing with the grandkids are. But they are a reality for many people who are well into their retirement years. Most people who are searching for senior services aren’t the people needing care. By that point, it’s their adult children who are searching for options for them.

There are a lot of wonderful tidbits in the Administration on Aging’s Profile of Older Americans (2020 version here). For example, did you know:

• In 2009, we had 39.6 million people age 65+.
• The 2019 population had 54.1million people age 65+, and were 16% of the population. If you already have had friends or family struggling with getting affordable senior services, you know the problem has gotten worse was the number and percentage of seniors increases.
  • 30 million women, 24.1 million men
• In 2040, that’s expected to be 21.6% of the population, and 80.8 million people. Expect more trouble acquiring senior services ahead.
• By 2060, the projection is for 94.7 million people to be age 65+.
• Out of that 54.1 million people, 4.9 million were below the poverty level, and another 2.6 million were near-poor. That’s 14% of the older population struggling to make ends meet.
• Even when you look at the whole elderly population, the median income was $27,398, which isn’t rich living. That income varied widely for men vs women: $36,921 for men vs $21,815 for women, but is still low for everyone.

These aging loved ones may need additional help and support, beyond what they and you can provide. Besides looking at what holes you can already tell exist in their lives, sometimes it’s easier to have a list of possibilities to look at, and then your pain points jump out to you with clarity.

Here is a long list of services that you may be able to outsource, or may have to outsource, depending on your situation:

• Travel
• Executive Assistant
• Pet care
• In-home care
• Adult day care services
• Relocation

Travel

Travel is the most fun to think about, and is one people are already often comfortable outsourcing by hiring a travel agent and signing up for non-DIY events such as joining a tour group. But if your parents have been DIY their whole life, or have never traveled before, helping them consider support for their limitations may not have been on their radar. Travel support services could include:

• Travel companions, who make the arrangements and accompany their clients
• Travel groups designed for older age groups
• Travel packages and destinations designed for grandparents and their grandchildren, either spanning 3 generations or leaving the parents at home
• Cruises and bus trips, which by design are lower impact
• Small group travel for women
• Mobility restrictions, disabilities, or medical condition support. Check out these travel resources from the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital to help you think through the process.

Executive or personal assistant

Executive assistant services are another type of care that people are more comfortable outsourcing, especially if they had been a busy professional family in the past. This can include all number of things, each of which may need to be hired separately or might be able to be rolled into just a few providers. This type of assistance could include:

• Mail delivery, pickup, correspondence, and bill paying
• Running errands
• Meal planning
• Grocery shopping
• Computer help
• Reminders and improving organization

Pet care

Pets are great for older people, as long as they can be cared for and stay out from underfoot: falls are a number one cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries in older people. But bending down to scoop the litter box, or seeing well enough and having non-shaky hands to satisfactorily groom a long haired pet, or walking a dog on icy days, may no longer be in the cards for your loved one. Technically a piece of the personal assistant role I list above, or the in-home care role I list below, but it’s such an emotionally and physically important piece of elder adult health that it deserved its own call-out.

In-home care

This can be care for the home, or care for the adult in their home.

• Care of the home
  • Housekeeping
  • Laundry
  • Preparing meals
  • Handyman services
  • General contracting for projects beyond handyman work
  • Yard work
  • Gardening
• Care of the person
  • Medication reminders
  • Physical fitness training
  • Transportation
  • Helping with bathing, grooming, dressing, personal hygiene
  • Home health care and nursing care

Adult day care services

If you are still working, but your parents need more care or socialization during the day, a great option is adult day care. This one gets its own article, coming up tomorrow.

Relocation

Whether to be closer to loved ones or into a higher level of care, downsizing or relocation one or more times tends to happen to the elderly. Coordinating this change has many moving pieces, and they are often stressful to Mom and Dad.

• Coordination, including turning off and on utilities and transfer of insurance
• Finding new medical care and transfer of medical records
• Alerting friends and family, service providers
• Packing
• Movers
• Sorters and estate sale organizers
• Cleaners
• Arranging travel for people and vehicles
• Unpacking

Choices to be made

Of course, all of these depend on your local area and your price point. If you are thinking of undertaking these tasks yourself, now you have a list of what you might be committing to. And if you live far from Mom and Dad, consider these as a list of services that your more local brother or sister might be being asked to do; keep that in mind before volunteering them for everything.