Carol Levine

Your options for the future are expanding — and that’s a good thing. There are many more alternatives for living at home or in the community, where the clear majority of people want to be. Technology is making it possible to have your healthcare monitored at home and to keep you in touch with family and friends.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Help at home is probably the most-often-needed service for an older adult, and it’s the area where Medicare coverage is weakest and private costs are highest. Medicare does pay for some home healthcare services, however, under these conditions: A doctor confirms in writing that he or she has examined the person within 30 days and that the patient needs skilled nursing care, such as care provided by a registered nurse or physical therapist.

Sometimes the choice seems obvious: You live in a big house with plenty of room, and your parent or other relative has only a limited amount of space. Of course, your mother will come to live with you. Or the reverse may be true. Your mother is the one rattling around in a big house, and you desperately need more space.