Imagine a house for your aging parent that does some of the caring for you. Ideally the Caring Home is placed within a neighborhood that offers other levels of care. My own neighborhood has initiated a movement called Washington Park Cares, modeled on the Beacon Hill Project in Boston. 
Membership is only $100 per year, and that gives people access to a wide range of services — from their neighbors and from others — that may be difficult to find on their own. It also encourages the interdependence we share with others. At various times you might see an individual both giving and receiving care at all levels of community. The quality of the care is not only the responsibility of the caregivers, but of the living environment we inhabit, the home, the neighborhood and the greater society.  Each of these levels of community can do its part.

Since the living environment can be so helpful, a new home or a renovation of the current one may be part of the solution for your loved ones. If you choose either of these courses, you may find that you have unrealized resources. A family might renovate their home to have a parent move in, or they might build th;eir parents their own cottage in the garden. The sale of the parents' home may be able to finance either of these scenarios. Or the parents might build a retirement cottage in their own garden, and rent their larger home to a family who needs more space. The rent from the old homestead can finance this strategy. The end result of all of these choices will leave mom and dad with a true Caring Home to live in happily for years to come.

The Caring Home Lifts the Spirit

The architecture and the landscaping form an image of independence and identity for the person living there. More modestly, but not unlike entering a cathedral, the well-designed caring home stirs feelings of awe, and of being part of something larger. Comfort, belonging, personal expression and the freedom to do as you please are all feelings supported by the caring home. Contrast this with living in a single room with only one small window to the world outside. t’s little wonder people cling so desperately to staying in their own homes, a place full of memories and familiar surroundings.

The Caring Home Connects Easily with Nature and the Outdoors

• Being able to move through the entire living environment indoors and outdoors can expand the feeling of space in a small home and allows for the experience of being in nature through gardening or just viewing.
• A person that may have sight or mobility problems must be safe in their ventures outside.
  Remove all barriers in the form of stairs or steep ramps. 
• The boundaries of the safe area should be clear and easily seen or felt.  A low white picket fence surrounding a garden, for instance, is both charming and a clear definition of limits.
• Using wider doors and corridors eases accessibility throughout the interior, and extra space in bathrooms and kitchens provides room for maneuverability.

The Caring Home Helps with Daily Life
 
A individual tilt-up bed can facilitate lying down and getting up by use of the tilt-up feature to raise the person into a sitting position. From there it is easier to finish the full movement from vertical to horizontal or vice-versa. 

Second sleeping areas can be created through the use of counterbalanced folding beds (Murphy-type beds) that disappear into walls or armoires or other pieces of furniture during the day.  These can operate with the touch of a finger, requiring little strength or dexterity.

Power-operated awning windows, strategically placed around the home, can allow natural cross ventilation and air circulation for cooling in summer. Casement windows with large cranks for ease of use can do the same, while requiring a small amount of force by a person to operate. Most single-hung or double-hung windows, so popular in homes, require too much strength for older people to lift out of the initial seal at the sill.

Hard surface flooring such as hardwood, bamboo, or ceramic tile all allow the easy-rolling use of walkers, scooters or wheelchairs, and they give up nothing in beauty and quality. Carpets, particularly deep plush types, are difficult for wheeled mobility aids to be used to their best advantage.

The concept of Universal design includes other features that make a home easy to use for anyone, young, old weak or strong.  A few of those are the following:

• Lever doors hardware vs. knobs that may be difficult to turn for arthritis sufferers.
• Lots of drawers, knee spaces, and up front controls for appliances in the kitchen allow wheelchair users to use the kitchen.
• If room allows, raising the dishwasher and oven for less bending over can be helpful and less painful for those with back problems.
• The same ideas are applicable in the bathroom.  In addition reinforcing for the addition of grab bars, where needed, can be added later, and a roll-in shower will not only permit wheelchair entry, but also avoid a tripping danger for those who don’t require the use of a wheelchair.
  

Universal design considers every small detail ,down to lowering the heights of electrical switches and the raising the height of outlets, the location of controls on equipment and simply being able to move through the entire home without fear of tripping or facing an obstacle. You can go one step further and include motion-sensing bath fans, lights, and other aids to those with hearing or vision impairments. Simply decorating and painting to create good light vs. dark contrast between walls and floors will make it easier to see these transitions from horizontal to vertical.

An Independent Structure

Independence and self-reliability can be best expressed in a living space if it is in a detached self-contained building vs. an addition to an existing home. Our mental images of structures such as, “The Cottage” or “The Carriage House” carry with them the feeling of independence from others.  It’s important to encourage mom or dad to ask for things they want in their home and to respect those desires.

This sort of home is a goal — and one that is not always possible within the zoning regulations of every city. The individual character of the home is the point, whether attached or not. The design should express the character of the person or persons living there as separate from, but part of, the larger family unit. That character and independence should be apparent to anyone, especially for visitors who can come and go without disturbing those in the larger family home.

Mike Kephart, founder of Kephart ::Community::Planning::Architecture, now hs established Kephart Living and Sidekick Homes to promote housing and active living options for the 50+ consumer. Contact Mike Kepart at mike@kephartliving.com.

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