Too Close for Comfort?
Local Senior Care Expert Says Intergenerational
Living Presents Special Challenges
It's happening in the White House and in homes throughout San Luis Obispo. When President Obama's mother-in law, Marian Robinson, settled in with her family in Washington earlier this year, they became part of a growing national trend.
The challenges that can arise from intergenerational living have prompted Home Instead Senior Care, a company serving San Luis Obispo County to launch a public education campaign to help families determine if living together is a good idea and to provide tips on how to make such an arrangement work well for seniors as well as their family caregivers if they do decide to combine households. This campaign will help adult children begin to address such issues as the stress of caregiving under one roof, adapting a home for two or more generations and merging household finances.
Several factors are driving this trend, according to Tiffany Alcantara, General Manager of the Home Instead Senior Care franchise in Pismo Beach. "We see families coming together to share family caregiving duties for economic reasons and emotional support. Sometimes the seniors need care, but in other instances the older adults could be providing care to their own grandchildren. Seniors may feel they need the emotional support of an extended family and, in these difficult economic times, financial assistance. Regardless of the reasons, combining households is a big decision. Some families may decide that maintaining separate residences is the best alternative."
At the center of the campaign is a handbook, available free from the local Home Instead Senior Care, which addresses the emotional, financial, and comfort and safety aspects of intergenerational living.
The handbook was compiled with the assistance of three national experts: Matthew Kaplan Ph.D., Penn State Intergenerational Programs extension specialist; Adriane Berg, CEO of Generation Bold and a consultant on reaching boomers and seniors; and Dan Bawden, founder of the CAPS (Certified Aging in Place Specialists) program for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). A Web site www.makewayformom.com provides additional support and information, including a calculator that will help families compute and compare whether living together or maintaining separate residences is the best financial option. In addition, the Web site features a virtual tour of an intergenerational home where visitors can hear from a real family and see firsthand how they've adapted their home.
Penn State's Matt Kaplan said that families should approach decisions of combining households from a partnership perspective. "Ask yourself, can I get the whole family behind the idea" When a decision is made to combine families, expectations must be set right away. Family members must listen and become engaged in conversation. The more the entire family buys in at the beginning, the more likely they will be to come up with great ideas, he noted.
People need independence, but seeking interdependence and family unity are important as well, particularly in today's hectic and demanding world.