![]() ![]() Hiring a health care aide (around $19 an hour) just during weekdays can easily add anotherīut a growing number of elderly people - 88 percent of those over 65 - say they want to live in their own homes, in their own communities, as they age, according to a 2010 AARP survey. ![]() Of course, unlike nursing homes, granny pods don’t come equipped with 24-hour professional care and three meals a day. In Virginia, even higher in New York, that’s cheap,” said Mr. “If you compare it to nursing home costs, which can run $6,000 to $8,000 per month Dupin’s distributors will buy it back for about $38,000 after 24 months of use. A state law passed in 2010 permits temporary medical dwellings on a resident’s property, as long as a physician verifies that the patient needs assistance withĪt least two daily functions - like bathing, eating and dressing - and the unit is removed when there is no longer a need for it (so the pods don’t turn into rental properties). ![]() (Several additional states, including New York, are considering legislation explicitly permitting grannyīut setting one up is especially easy in Virginia. “Local zoning varies by county, and it’s not necessarily easy to set these pods up,” said Rodney Harrell, housing policy specialist at the AARP Public Policy Institute.Ĭurrently about half of the states allow these accessory dwellings for a family member, according to Mr. Reminds the patient and sends a text message to the caregiver. If the resident fails to take medication from a dispenser on time, the system - speaking aloud. Signal heart failure and other serious conditions), sharing that information with family and physicians. The floor, so normally all they transmit are images of feet and ankles.įor those needing more elaborate medical monitoring, the MEDCottage is equipped with a system that tracks blood pressure, glucose, heart rate and blood gases (changes in blood levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide can It’s not exactly Big Brother: The cameras sweep an area 12 inches above If the cottage resident does fall, she will be visible on a camera system hooked up to the caregiver’s computer in the main house. “One of the primary reasons people have to go to nursing homes is that caregivers can’t lift them anymore and get them out of bed and keep them mobile,” Mr. The lift helps those with more serious mobility Residents who have balance issues can grab onto a hook to provide stability as they move around the cottage. Tracks along the ceiling accommodate a lift or a trapeze hook. In order to make midnight bathroom visits safer, for instance, a runway mat stretching from the bed to the toilet lights up automatically when you step on it. The utilities and plumbing connect to the primary residence.īut the granny pod also brims with high-tech touches. The cottage is laid out as an open-plan apartment with a kitchen area (equipped with a microwave, small refrigeratorĪnd washer-dryer combo), a bed area and a bathroom large enough in which to maneuver a wheelchair. This month, the Pages will become the first family in the country to take delivery of a high-tech MEDCottage. In the United States, these self-contained units have earned another nickname: granny pods. The Australians, who began building simple backyard homes for the elderly in the ’70s, call them granny flats. Indeed, according to Kenneth Dupin,Ī minister and the founder of N2Care, the Virginia company that worked with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering to design the MEDCottage, you can drop an egg from 18 inches onto the special flooring without The floors, for instance: “It’s got special rubber floors, so even if you fall, you’ll be safe,” noted Dr. It’s more than a miniature house - it’s decked out with high-tech monitoring and safety features that rival those of many nursing homes. They ordered a MEDCottage - a prefabricated 12-by-24-foot bedroom-bathroom-kitchenette unit that can be set up as a free-standing structure in their backyard. The solution? Though many families are often forced to consider nursing homes under these circumstances, the Page family found another option. “My mother is embarrassed to have to use the commode by her bed at night,” said Dr. But the four steps down to the bathroom in the split-level Baez-Page, a general practitioner in Alexandria, Va., moved her parents into her home, converting the dining room and TV nook on the main floor into a bedroom. Her aging parents wanted to stay in their town house, but her mother couldn’t handle Socorrito Baez-Page faced an increasingly common conundrum. When her father became ill just before Christmas last year, Dr.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |