Bulletin E-Edition:
Right at home
In-home care allows elderly to keep their independence
By Alandra Johnson / The Bulletin
Published: May 22. 2009 4:00AM PST
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Doris Claypool, 102, lives at home thanks to help she receives from in-home care workers like Laverne Robison.
Melissa Jansson / The Bulletin
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Doris Claypool has lived in the same house not far from Bend’s Drake Park for 70 years. The 102-year-old has never really considered leaving.
“Because it was home; that says it all. I had everything I wanted here. Why would I go somewhere else?”
She used to walk to work at the downtown furniture store she and her husband owned. She stopped working at 90, when her eyesight got bad.
“I would be working again. If somebody would give me a job, I’d love it.”
She managed on her own at home just fine. But two years ago, she fell and fractured her leg in several places. Now she needs extra help. Her son Dale, 65, lives in an apartment attached to her home and helps her at night. While he’s at work, for eight or so hours each day during the week, her “girls,” as Claypool calls them, come in and help her with basic tasks.
Claypool moved from California to Bend when she was 20. She made the last leg of her trip aboard a stagecoach. She married Guy Claypool and they shared 53 years together, and enjoyed raising their son, walking to Drake Park and running the business together.
Doris Claypool sees finding a way to stay in her home as an essential part of her happiness and well-being. “It was my life. … I knew every corner where I should be.” Hiring workers to help her perform basic tasks and keep her safe during the day was key.
“This gives you a way to live and be independent by having the home care. Otherwise you’d be in a home, but that to me would be like prison.”
Numerous seniors want to do anything they can to avoid leaving their homes. Sometimes, due to health, financial or other reasons, staying put simply isn’t possible. But many advances are making the choice more feasible.
In-home care
The women who help care for Claypool come from Evergreen In-Home Care Services in Bend, founded and operated by Nancy Webre. She has a degree in gerontology, and founded Evergreen with her husband 27 years ago with the goal of helping keep people in their homes. She says nearly every older client they work with wants to stay in his or her own home.
The company is one of several in Central Oregon that offer basic services for seniors, such as housekeeping, personal care, medication monitoring and more. Caregivers may help drive a client to an appointment and sit with him or her through it, or help a client bathe and dress.
Todd Sensenbach owns the local franchise of Home Instead Senior Care, which also provides in-home services. He says most of his 60 clients cannot drive and require care from two hours a week to full time.
He sees his service as a way to help people stay independent.
“They are determined — no matter what — to stay in their homes,” said Sensenbach. In particular, he believes people who grew up during the Depression tend to be very independent minded.
Families
Often the caregivers are hired by a daughter or son who is concerned about his or her parent. Sensenbach estimates only 25 percent of clients set up services themselves. He says some signs a parent may need more help are scattered and disorganized medications, unclean living conditions or a dent in the car.
It can be difficult for some older individuals to recognize they need help.
“They want to do too much and end up hurting themselves,” said Webre.
She feels sympathy for these seniors, who often feel they are losing control of their lives.
“You need to be empathetic. Think of how their lives are closing in.”
Sensenbach offers coaching tips and tricks to help adult children talk to their parents about getting help. Sometimes people talk about a role reversal, where the child feels as though he or she has become the parent. But Sensenbach says instead the relationship should become more of a peer-to-peer dynamic.
“Don’t talk to parents as if they are children,” he advised.
Some people are so independent, they resent the help and get angry, according to Webre. Those individuals have to hit rock bottom before they are willing to accept help. Other times, children are quick to push their parents into a care facility when they aren’t ready.
“Some (adult children) get so frustrated. They want to put them somewhere,” said Webre. Or sometimes the adult children want to make a decision quickly and don’t fully research options.
Even within in-home care, options abound. Families can hire someone directly, go through a referral agency, or use a service like Evergreen. In the first two options, families often pay less per hour, but need to carry out things like criminal background checks, taxes, training and oversight themselves. With in-home services, the company is the employer, not the family.
Sometimes seniors choose to live apart from family members. After Phyllis Stuewig’s husband died, the 72-year-old decided to move to Texas to be near her daughter and two grandchildren. She left behind a rich life in Bend, filled with dinners with friends, a book club, volunteer work and more. She and her daughter had an addition built onto a house in Fort Worth. But within a year, Stuewig was back in Central Oregon. Her daughter and grandchildren were busy and had their own lives. Her life in Texas had “no hills, no ocean, no friends.”
She realized that while she doesn’t have any family here, this is where her life is.
Stuewig hopes to find a way to remain independent and not rely on her children. She has teamed up with a number of other like-minded Central Oregonians to form an organization they hope will help accomplish that goal (see “High Desert Village” on Page E1).
Cost
Finances also play a big role.
“In-home care is expensive because it’s out of pocket,” said Webre. The cost of services varies depending on the need, but most run about $20-$25 per hour. Many people assume Medicare will pay the cost, but that isn’t the case, says Webre.
Typically, it is less expensive for individuals to receive some in-home care than to move into a care facility, but that changes when someone needs full-time, 24-hour-a-day care.
Webre says her company has just one client who has 24-hour-a-day care because she “wants to be in her home to the bitter end.”
Adaptive technology
Another way that older individuals can stay in their homes longer is to change their houses. Many older homes, in particular, are not set up with seniors in mind.
Sensenbach says some homes can become a trap for older individuals. Stairs, dark hallways and throw rugs can be dangerous obstacles. Each year, Webre sees more and more high-tech offerings come out that would help these folks.
“It blows me away, what’s out there now.”
Some of the basic tools include ramps, grab bars (in the bathroom, for example) and raised toilets. Installing levers instead of doorknobs can also help.
Even if an individual doesn’t opt to make any of those changes, sometimes even basic alterations can help. Many groups offer safety assessments to check fire alarms, clutter and issues like loose rugs.
Sisters resident Kathryn Cooper and her son, Charles, own Freestyle Homes Inc., which is a contractor certified to adapt homes to fit the needs of older individuals. It installs grab bars, accessible showers, ramps and raised toilets. But since starting this speciality in 2006, the business has not attracted very many customers. Cooper says they get more business from children than from senior parents. Cooper cared for her mother for several years and watched her struggle to keep her independence.
Cooper, who is 64, recently installed some adaptive items in her own home.
“I’m slowing down,” she said. She thinks it can be hard for some seniors to face this fact.
“When I do have trouble, it will be helpful.”
The Larsens
Ray Larsen just turned 86, and his wife, Marie, is 85. They live about six miles outside La Pine, in the same home they’ve lived in for 21 years. Every day except Sunday, they meet friends for breakfast at Gordy’s Truck Stop at 7 a.m. Ray still chops the wood to heat the fireplace and works a day or two each week at Quail Run Golf Course. Marie spends four or five hours each day trading stocks online. She loved working and likes to stay busy.
“I love to have something that challenges me up here,” she said, pointing to her head. “The stock market does that.”
The couple spent many years serving as caretakers for their parents: A year caring for Marie’s dad, 10 years caring for her mom and a year caring for Ray’s mother.
But despite their active lives, they are starting to see some changes. Last year, Ray had a heart attack. And in March, Marie fell and broke her shoulder in three places. She was walking from the car to the house and suddenly blacked out and fell onto a wooden path.
She doesn’t remember falling, only trying to sit up afterward. She narrowly missed hitting her head on the trunk of a tree. “I just feel like it was a real miracle.”
She wore her arm in a sling and still has trouble with pain, movement and a shaky hand. “I was beginning to think I’d never get over that fall,” she said.
She had never broken a bone before. “It was just a hard, very tough concept to accept.”
Their only son, Eric, lives in California. They visit him about twice a year but don’t believe he would be interested in caring for them.
Marie Larsen says they are not against moving. “I would not mind at all walking away and moving into a home,” she said.
She thinks every older individual has to accept his or her limitations. She is starting to think about hers now.
“Your brain doesn’t necessarily tell you you’re old, but your body does. That’s an adjustment.”
Alandra Johnson can be reached at 541-617-7860 or at ajohnson@bendbulletin.com.
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