Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses aging in place with the National Institute on Aging’s Erin Harrell, PhD.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Good morning, welcome back to the Broadcast Retirement Network. This is BRNAM for Monday, June 24th, 2024. And our top story today, aging in place, growing older at home.
And joining me now to discuss this and a lot more is Dr. Erin Harrell. She is with the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Harrell, it is so great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us on the program this morning. Thank you for having me. This is an exciting topic.
I think we want to cover it from a lot of, we have lots of conversations for you. I want to cover it from a lot of different angles. How popular, let me start off with a basic question and you can just talk about anecdotal evidence.
I’m not asking for hard facts, but how popular now is aging in place amongst our older generations?
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Well, what we do know as individuals get older, they want the same things. They want to be able to stay in their homes. They want to be able to maintain independence.
They want to know that friends and family are there if needed, but ideally they want to be able to age in place and live independently as long as possible.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And so this is a, as I said, a growing trend. And you anecdotally said it’s picking up. Are we set up, are people set up right now to age in place?
So if I decided, Jeffrey Snyder decided, I’m not yet retirement age, but if I decided I wanted to age in place, would someone like myself be set up to stay at home, to seek care when it needed to do so?
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
That’s a great question. And it’s a question that we hope more and more people start having earlier and more frequently, beginning to really look at now before they really need to make adjustments or changes in their home. Having those conversations early with friends and family to really be able to prepare so that they are in a position so that they can be set up for success, to be able to age safely in their homes and also maintain good quality of health at the same time.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And so it’s starting these conversations. I would assume that you need support when aging at home. I mean, you’re going to be maybe by yourself.
You have a significant other, a partner, maybe some roommates, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to incorporate and enlist help those around you to support you for care visits, for buying groceries, for even managing some of the day-to-day life expenses that we all have.
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
You’re absolutely correct. On our website, we provide a number of resources that help individuals go through a checklist for things that they can do to help prepare their homes. Just looking ahead at doing simple things that they could even benefit from now, for example, to help with preventing falls, making sure that there’s handrails on both sides of their stairway so that they can have more support if needed to go up and down the stairs.
Or if stairs may be a concern or challenge due to current mobility issues, maybe looking at resources that might be available now to have a ramp installed. Also just looking at safety, making sure that things such as smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are located in ideal areas, close to your kitchen, close to bedrooms so that you can hear them, but also just making sure that you have some system in place to make sure that the batteries are replaced every year so you can ensure that they’re working. As technology advances, there’s also options of upgrading appliances to more smart appliances that may help provide alerts if they’re left on for an extended period of time.
So also considering to see if investing in those types of resources might be something to do now.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, really good insight there. What about, I mentioned it before, if you have to seek care, getting to a doctor, say the older you get, sometimes people may not be driving anymore. What about transportation and access to external caregivers, not just people coming to the home, your regular doctor visits, picking up pharmaceutical items, things like that?
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Another great question and something to, again, start to consider early, even though you may be able to drive now to get to your doctor’s appointments or to get prescriptions, going ahead and finding out information as to whether or not there are delivery services that you could use for your prescription medication. Because maybe even though you can drive to the pharmacy now to pick them up, maybe that would just be easier overall. So to go ahead and get that information now and know what you would need to do to get those systems in place is key.
Having conversations with your doctor is also important as well because they may be able to guide and direct individuals to services in their area. Oftentimes, many people don’t know that there’s a number of services available through local, state, and federal governments. There is resources on our site.
We have an elder locator that individuals can use to find resources specific to their area that they could benefit from. You had mentioned in relation to caregiving services. So if they did need maybe meals delivered to them or help with grocery or shopping, to really know what resources are available to them so that they can decide when to engage those services and how they would go about doing that.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. Go ahead. I’m sorry, doctor.
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
And again, just seeing if friends and family would be willing to help. Oftentimes, neighbors who may still be working, they may be passing by your pharmacy every day on the way to work. It wouldn’t be an issue for them to pick up your medication or even to assist with taking you to a medical appointment if needed.
I think it’s just important in investigating, exploring those networks to see who you could depend on for different types of services. Also, a lot of nonprofit religious organizations also have services available that can also help individuals as well.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
But I did wanna follow up. You mentioned some of the resources. Let’s talk a little bit about the Caregiver’s Handbook.
I think this is pretty unique. Before we talk about the National Institute on Aging and the research y’all are doing, let’s talk about this handbook. You mentioned, already mentioned some of the information, but first of all, where do we find the handbook and what’s in it?
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Yes, great question. So in addition to the handbook, there are a number of resources that we do make available to the public on our website. The Caregiver’s Handbook is one of those.
The Caregiver’s Handbook is available for download as a PDF, but again, we know that not everyone prefers to read a text digitally. So there is also an option where you can actually request to have a paper version of the handbook mailed if that would be your preference to have a paper copy instead of going through and reading online.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, I’m old school, so I like it in paper format, but as you said, you gotta be, these days you gotta have things available in multiple formats. I did wanna take a step back. Let’s talk a little bit about the National Institute on Aging.
I know you’re part of NIH. We’ve covered aging in place and aging from so many different directions. Would you mind sharing just some of the research that you all are doing at NIA and how you’re helping to plan for what is effectively an aging America?
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Absolutely, so I would first like to start by just mentioning as the National Institute on Aging, we are a part of the National Institutes of Health. So we do fund a number of research studies that are looking at various aspects of aging in place. I know earlier we had talked about transportation being something that also factors into independence.
So we have a number of studies looking at things such as therapeutics to looking at everyday activities, things such as driving, walkability, to be able to detect changes in one’s cognition, to be able to determine when you may want to start having those conversations with your doctor as to whether or not you should still continue to drive or if you have concerns about cognition, some of the things that you could be doing early on. So we do support a number of researchers who are exploring research in a number of areas to help support older adults have high quality of life even as they age.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and you’re part of the NIA, which is part of the NIH, but there are also, I think there’s a lot of research going on and planning going on, not just at the federal level of which you’re involved but also, and your colleagues, but also at the state and local level. I mean, I read all the time in papers and articles about this state or that state that has a Department of Aging. I have to imagine that there’s a lot of thought sharing or information sharing that happens.
Hey, we just came up with this or Pennsylvania did this. I mean, I have to think that there’s collaboration going on.
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Yes, so a number of our researchers who receive funding through us, you know, they’re located throughout the United States. So they may have partners in different states where they’re collaborating to expand and do what we would call a multi-site study to look at different factors, maybe walkability in areas that are more rural compared to maybe a partner site that’s in a city. So looking at those factors and how we can learn from those different areas and be able to really promote, you know, evidence-based practice as to, if we want older adults to be able to get out and walk if they’re no longer driving, what do those environments have to look like or include?
So we’re looking at things such as, you know, safety for sidewalks, safety in general for the neighborhood, are there places that they could stop along the way to sit if they tire? So yes, there’s a lot of collaborations that go on amongst our researchers to be able to put forth evidence-based research.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, it’s absolutely fascinating and certainly needed not only here in the United States, but also around the globe, because I think the whole world is aging. Every society, China, Asia, Europe, I mean, it’s absolutely fascinating. There’s a lot of planning going on.
Dr. Harrell, we’re gonna have to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us and we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
Erin Harrell, PhD., National Institute on Aging
Thank you, my pleasure to join.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And that wraps up this episode of BRNAM. Have a topic of interest? Someone you think we should talk to?
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