Multiple
generations of families will cohabitate. What is different, is households will
become more collaborative ventures -- with families caring for one another
(younger for old, and older for younger), sharing expenses, carpooling,
dividing chores and, by the best of intentions, making the multi-age living experience more productive than annoying.
New homes and
renovations will routinely incorporate livable designs and features to accommodate
those who desire to grow older in their own homes for as long as possible. Livable design will enhance homes’ resale
value as well.
Use of Skype
and other online video communications will replace many actual family visits. Daily online video connections will also do
much to alleviate anxiety about not making regular trips to visit infirmed
parents and grandparents.
Alzheimer’s
disease will be largely preventable -- removing an extraordinary burden from dementia
sufferers and informal caregivers. Memory care providers will modify services
and collaborate with assisted living communities to offer hybrid, multi-level models and options for residents with dementia.
Use of music, art, humor and other therapies
proven to uniquely engage the brain creativity will be standard practice in
caring for individuals with dementia.
Walking
devices will definitely become simpler and more attractive. In fact, all assistive technologies will be way cooler and de-stigmatized. Watch
out for more three-wheel bicycles with baskets, too.
Increased
demand for surgeries and devices to improve eyesight and hearing will prompt
the frenetic pace of progressive
solutions, and more affordable corrective procedures.
Healthy fast food chains will dominate
the market -- to the
point “healthy” is no longer a differentiator.
First Florida,
then other states, will designate the
right lanes of highways as “accommodation lanes” for more cautious drivers,
with speed limits reduced by 15 miles per hour.
Longevity and
patience of older adults will force policymakers to commit to more long-term, substantive
solutions with less focus solely on politically
motivated immediate gratification.
Boomers will
show appreciation for their “longevity dividend” (cliché alert) through generativity -- the principle of one
generation looking out for another. Environmental
protection and resource conservation will once again become a top concern.
Along this
same line of thought, the “compression of morbidity” (prolonging active living
and delaying disability for older adults” -- another cliché alert) will inspire legions of volunteers, mentors and experience counselors.
Retirement
age will gradually advance to early seventies. To compensate for this
inevitability, employers will create flexible workforces and hours to
accommodate and respect the standardized
practice of “transfer of experience” from veteran to fresh employees.
Centenarians
will have to celebrate their 110th
birthday to become newsworthy.
“Anti-aging” nostrums and
advertisements will be perceived as ageist. (Florida will attempt to make it unlawful to sell or
promote “anti-aging” anything.)
Engaged couples, both with hyphenated
last names, will not appreciate their Boomer parents’ conceit.
And, successful
aging services providers will offer more affordable services and care to give
consumers more aging-in-place (final cliché alert) options focused on “your home, our experience.”
I believe shared housing and shared resources will become a reality - especially among single women. This will not only help with finances but will foster the community we all long for.
ReplyDeleteChaplain in the Cloud @cloudchaplain