As we age, things around the house that were once easy to negotiate become more challenging. Home tune-ups, to remove age- or disability-related barriers, can range from the use of helpful equipment (like a shower seat) to an actual home modification, such as better lighting, ramps, grab bars, handrails, or even remodeling a kitchen or bathroom.
Enter SAIL’s Home Modificiations for Aging in Place (HomeMAPTM) Program. HomeMAPTM is SAIL’s trademarked, innovative program designed to help you determine what changes you need to make in your residence so you can live longer and safer in your home. Surveys show that 95% of us want to live in our own homes as long as we possibly can, SAIL’s HomeMAP program is designed to help meet that goal.
For better living and for better visitability, being proactive is the way to go. Making aging in place modifications ahead of time, instead of after a fall or hospitalization, is ideal. Like preventative medicine for our bodies, preventative home modifications for where we live will give us safer, healthier time ahead.
The program entails a home survey, in which a SAIL team who know independent living equipment and ADA remodeling standards, will visit you where you live. Staff will talk with you (and family caregivers who want to join) and will tour your home. The focus will be the concerns you have for yourself, for family members, or for those who visit you. For example, if low vision or hearing is the issue, it is the focus; if balance or mobility is the issue, then that is the focus. Aging in place is person specific. Not everyone will need an ADA wheelchair accessible bathroom to age in place. Brainstorming what is needed for you and those who visit you is what HomeMAP is all about.
Following the HomeMAP survey, SAIL will send you a written report outlining possible solutions to your aging in place needs. This HomeMAP report can be helpful as you do your home modifications yourself or if you are working with a contractor.
A nominal fee scale is associated with HomeMAP. However, services will not be denied to anyone based on inability to pay. To find out more, please contact your local SAIL office.
