With most Americans wishing to experience older adulthood from the familiarity of their own homes, it is vital to understand how to offer support that prioritizes one’s well-being. Supporting elders living at home through care partnerships, rather than caregiving, allows us to honor both autonomy and connectedness.
By Denise Hyde
Eden Alternative Membership Engagement Guide
Most Older Adults Would Prefer to Age at Home
When Americans are asked how they wish to live in older adulthood, the responses are resounding: recent surveys show not only that 92% of Americans prefer to age in place (at their own home or a family member’s home), but that 70% of Americans are unwilling to live in a nursing home. To many, aging in place or aging at home means maintaining independence, familiarity, autonomy, routine, and connection to the neighborhood and community they’ve known for years.
The Challenges of Aging at Home: When One’s Home Begins to Feel Like an Institution
I find it telling that 70% of Americans are unwilling to live in a nursing home. Long-held biases and common misconceptions of long-term care communities can fuel these strong sentiments about one’s future care.
However, in my career I have also witnessed the individual, among the 92%, who wanted to age at home and then ended up experiencing loneliness, helplessness, and boredom that wore away at their spirit.
From my experience, common reasons elders struggle when aging at home include:
- One’s treasured home is now filled with a hospital bed, medical equipment and treatment supplies in spaces where they used to gather with loved ones
- Visitors don’t have a place to sit down and enjoy a conversation with the individual living there
- Elders and their families struggle to find consistent people to come in and provide needed support
Choices may be limited, visitors fall off, and life becomes less than desired. The home has become an institution.
The Power of Social Capital & Care Partnership When Supporting Elders Living At Home
We want so badly to be fiercely independent, yet we live in an interdependent society. Social capital is defined as the value derived from positive connections between people. It isn’t just about the numbers of people in our lives. It is about the spirit of those relationships that enable us to experience a life worth living.
The Eden Alternative uses the term “care partner” to define the spirit of relationships between elders and those offering support that are built on shared social capital. The word “partner” implies that there is giving and receiving available to everyone involved in the care partnership, especially the person who is accepting support.
How is a care partner different from a caregiver?
- Care partnering emphasizes a pro-aging and ability-inclusive mindset
- Care partners honor each person’s uniqueness and focuses on growth and development for all
- Being a care partner involves tuning in to each other and creating a responsive system of support that meets people where they are each day
Supporting Elders Living At Home through Care Partnership
How do you make this care partnership happen when supporting elders living at home? That’s where the Eden Approach® comes into play. We’ve built our approach on The Ten Principles of The Eden Alternative®, which provide a framework for understanding what each of us needs to be seen, treated, and honored as whole human beings.
Guided by The Eden Approach, the first steps to becoming a better caregiver include:
- Examining our own beliefs about aging. Becoming aware of any assumptions, attitudes, beliefs or fears we have regarding our own aging. These could undermine our ability to engage as a care partner.
- Emphasizing abilities. Framing quality of life in terms of what people CAN do rather than any limitations, whether real or perceived.
- Redefining “care.” Viewing the term “care” as helping another to grow, nurturing the human spirit as well as the body.
- Being ready to adapt. Being empowered to collaborate, adjust, and alter approaches to meet the needs of the individual in the moment.
Ready to Take the Next Step to Becoming a Care Partner?
The Eden Alternative brings it all together in a training called Caregiving to Care Partnering: The Eden Approach® at Home.
This training empowers family members, friends, neighbors, volunteers, home health professionals, and Elders with practical tools and inspiration to create a life worth living at home.
If supporting elders living at home through care partnership is something you want to learn more about, consider signing up for Caregiving to Care Partnering: The Eden Approach at Home today. If you are an Eden Member, be sure to use your discount code.
Care partnering is a life-giving mindset shift. Are you ready to embrace it?
About The Eden Alternative
Our Mission: To improve the well-being of Elders and their care partners by transforming the communities in which they live and work.
The Eden Alternative offers educational opportunities, consultation and a proven approach to honoring Elderhood – with resources for Elders and their care partners to elevate well-being.
