LTC Blog 4 - Wildcard Topic

Topic: Beacon Hill

As our society ages, I think is important that people start looking into what types of facilities they would accept to live in if needed. Personally, I know I do not want to live in a nursing home unless I absolutely have to in order to survive, and even then, I still would rather be somewhere else. In my Aging of the Elderly class, I learned about a community of elderly people living together as neighbors called Beacon Hill. Designed with the aging in place concept in mind, Beacon Hill offers a wide variety of features for members such as: transportation to places of worship and medical facilities, assistance to doctor’s appointments, meal deliveries, maintenance to install safety features in homes as needed, emergency plan helpers, exercise programs, education programs on aging, and freedom of visitors. After researching this community, I felt that it was a great alternative to institutionalized care and could see myself being happy living in such a community in my later years.

The goal of communities such as Beacon Hill is to keep senior citizens out of nursing homes, by allowing them to live in a place of comfort and familiarity. The main services that I mentioned above are provided under a standard fee. Other services such as therapists, home aides, and personal trainers are also offered, but on an ‘a la cart’ basis. However, despite the extra cost, members pay for these select services, which are offered well under the “going rate.”

This village was started by a nonprofit organization led by retired business executives and has 340 members with ages ranging from fifty-two to ninety-eight. Members pay an annual fee of $550, but can be higher if one is living in a separate household. Although the cost for a community such as this may be high and seem impossible to provide in areas of low-income, AARP with the help of the Beacon Hill Village nonprofit group are working on designing a plan to help create more alternative care facilities like Beacon Hill. By creating a manual to distribute to willing and financially stable organizations, they hope these communities will begin to flourish across America.

I think that these communities will play an increasing role in LTC as the baby boomers hit retirement and truly begin to start thinking about their future. It will be interesting to see how the government responds to the increasing role elderly communities have, and also, if they, too, try to create something similar to Beacon Hill as an alternative to nursing facilities which demand a higher cost and provide a lower end-of-life quality.