Abstract:

The dominant preference of older adults is to remain in their own homes. Home modifications create a supportive home environment, a key factor in assisting older persons to achieve their goal of aging in place. Modifying existing environments can: Promote independence by making it easier to perform tasks, facilitate caregiving, reduce accidents, enable older adults to engage in major life activities, reduce health care costs and delay institutionalization. Unfortunately, much of the existing housing stock is ill-suited to aging in place. It has problems such as inaccessible entrances, difficult to climb stairs and unsafe bathrooms. Over 1 million older persons have unmet needs for home modifications such as ramps, kitchen and bathroom access. There are several barriers that prevent home modifications from becoming more widespread: Many home modifications are costly and unaffordable; a confusing patchwork of funding sources and providers confronts consumer; a lack of awareness exists about problems in the physical environment and the benefits of home modifications; landlords are reluctant to modify the environment to meet the needs of older residents and tenants hesitant to request changes; a slow government response to retrofitting subsidized housing; inadequate laws and codes related to accessibility in housing. Recommendations: To address these problems and increase the environmental supportiveness of housing the public sector needs to create a 3-pronged Aging in Place Initiative that will: Increase the availability of home modifications; retrofit existing multi-unit housing; facilitate the building of suitable housing in the first place.