You saw the headline – America is running out of family caregivers. The numbers are daunting. Says Ken Dychwald in the WSJ article: “We’re going to have to look to nontraditional care,” says Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave, a consulting firm. "Older adults, he says, may have to take in boarders, who can help with shopping and repairs, or rely more on monitoring devices and delivery services.” This latest article was based on a recent study (part of a series) from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave. But is the issue low growth in potential family caregivers? Or is the real issue the low growth of population in the appropriate age range (45-64) of people to provide care to people who are aged 80+?
The boom in home care has side effects -- turnover and risk. We want to trust home care workers with aging parents. After all, most cannot afford private pay assisted living – which can exceed $3000/month in most locations – and assisted living occupancy is projected to be flat -- likely because people see the cost and defer move-in. Given expanding life expectancies at age 65 – an average of 20 more years for men and more for women, the possibility of ‘aging in place’ in a private home may be growing. As a result, the demand for private home care will grow, but so will the costs – especially for finding workers willing to do this difficult work for low pay. As of 2017, median home care turnover was 66.7% (compared to 30% for CNAs in assisted living). With so many workers coming and going, especially for care recipients with the most taxing care requirements, what technologies may assist families and agency management for monitoring care?
It was one of the worst and the best of times for innovation and older adults. It was a year, early on, in which tech-enabled home care appeared to resonate with investors. But traditional home care companies stuck to their knitting, watching the Home Hero shutdown in the midst of an ever-more-startling shortage of prospective workers. It was the oddest of times, with the $80 billion hype of self-driving cars partly focused on the transit needs of older adults. And it was the best of times – as 2017 was the year of Voice First technology lift-off – as Amazon’s Echo forced the hand of Google’s Home. Ultimately seniors will benefit from technology that fits both their interest and needs -- see the Market Overview update from early in the year. Here are the top blog posts from 2017:
You saw the headline – America is running out of family caregivers. The numbers are daunting. Says Ken Dychwald in 
The boom in home care has side effects -- turnover and risk. We want to trust home care workers with aging parents. After all, most cannot afford private pay assisted living – which can exceed 
It was one of the worst and the best of times for innovation and older adults. It was a year, early on, in which 