I often suggest to people that if they could do as much planning for their retirement and old age as they do for a wedding or a vacation…they could have a much better quality of life! Look at it as an adventure and explore your options. Anything is possible today. One of the statistics that gets everyone’s attention is to mention that you could spend more time caring for your aging parents than you do raising your kids! Approximately 19.5 years will be devoted to helping your aging parents and 18.3 years to raising your kids. That is if they graduate and leave home and never have to move back in. Begin to wrap your arms around the amount of time that could be spent dealing with the many options in services, products, professionals and long term care facilities that exist in our community. As we learn from helping our parents, we can get inspired for helping ourselves. Boomers will age, and the sooner you get excited and embrace it the better your life can be. We are living on the average twenty years longer due to better health habits and medical technology. I’m here to help you by giving you the right questions to ask and providing you options so that you and your family can make educated decisions.

We have a term called “aging in place” that refers to where we want to be to do our aging and that can accommodate our needs as we do so. Most people want to “age” at home. Because of wonderful in home care provider companies, retail products and adaptive equipment that helps us upgrade our homes to the safest environments possible, we can keep people in their homes three to five years longer today provided they have the resources to pay for these services.

One of the important things that you should consider is developing a relationship with your home care agency. You want to make sure that you get the right match in caregivers and that service is flexible, trustworthy and reliable. Ultimately, you could be working with the home care agency you choose for a long time. Everyone has misgivings about having strangers come into their homes. Be sure you spend time making a list of all the questions and concerns you have.

• Do your research on home care services and find those who are in business for the right reasons.
• Have a conversation with them; communication is critical.
• Ask what motivated them to get into this business.
• Find out how long the home care agency has been in business.
• Be sure that they have a pristine track record and can provide good references.
• Establish the value the home care services company places on providing good customer service.
• Try to determine if they deliver what they say they will with consistency.
• Is their pricing competitive?
• Who is the home care agency affiliated with? Have they earned the merit of belonging to any associations, networks, or the BBB?

Joni Seivert, founder of Connections Unlimited, LLC http://www.jonisconnections.com/

A preferred provider network of the best home care service providers in the Denver Colorado metro area. In home care options, products, professionals, placement in assisted living and nursing homes is what I specialize in. For the past 18 years I have been helping families look at their loved ones needs and helping them thru the maze of possible options and choices. You can call me at 303-232-3359 for a free telephone consultation.