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Over 65? Service boom awaitsBy Valerie Schlitt, The Philadephia Inquirer, April 2, 2003 Hospital programs, legal aid, even help in moving make life easier for many.New Jersey business serving adults older than 65 are forging a massive restructuring in the way these residents live and receive care. Since 1990, the percentage of Americans older than 65 has grown more than threefold. Today, 35 million Americans are older that 65, and that figure is expected to rise to 50 million by 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. More than one million adults in New Jersey are older than 65 - about 12 percent of the state's population. This group's wealth has grown as well. Between 1984 and 1999, the national median net worth of households with people 65 or older increased 10 percent when adjusted for inflation, according to statistics from the Administration on Aging. With a population so large in need of specialized services, it's no wonder traditional organizations and start-up ventures alike actively won the over-65 market. Virtua Health, the South Jersey hospital system, is just one of the giants expanding its services for this group. "We look at our community's seniors as part of the Virtua family," said Teresa Lawlor, director of Virtua VIP, an adult membership program. Virtua VIP Senior Services was launched in 1988. It has expanded to include a wellness program with more than 17,000 members, a 24-hour emergency-response service called Lifeline, two long-term care nursing and rehabilitation centers, and geriatric care management. Haddonfield Home was founded in 1954 as a retirement home. Jodi Melko, its director of community relations, said it had obtained an assisted-living license in 1997 to offer selected health services. "With the arrival of in-home services such as Lifeline and Meals on Wheels, residents come to our facility older," she said, "And they're staying with us longer. An older population requires more caregiving capabilities." The Evergreens in Moorestown offers another option. Founded in 1991 as a residential health facility for older adults, it became a continuing-care retirement community in 1994. The Evergreens offers apartment living for independent residents and assisted living and skilled nursing care for residents who need more medical attention. The legal community also is taking part in the revolution. Lawyers have become specialist in elder law, focusing on areas such as Medicaid planning, asset protection, Medicare and HMO appeals, and financial abuse. But traditional businesses are only part of the new senior-care landscape. One-person shops, many of them founded by women, also are making a difference. Patricia Nunan launched Lifestyles Design in 2001, serving South Jersey and Pennsylvania. She said customers' highest priorities were no-threshold showers, wider doorways, brighter lights and wheelchair-accessible sinks. Home Instead Senior Care in Mount Laurel provides companion care and "peace of mind to families," president Fran Fox said. Companions visit with clients, escort them to appointments, and even do light housekeeping. But they do not have medical training. Fox, a registered nurse formerly with Jefferson University Medical Center, opened her office in November 2001. Donna Willmann created Haddonfield based Byron Home in 1999. She helps clients downsize their homes, packing up their most precious items and setting them in the new home, often an assisted-living facility. Voorhees Center is a skilled-nursing facility in the Genesis ElderCare network. Among nursing homes, "the competition is very high," said Julie Farnath, director of administrations. "The trend in the last five to eight years is toward assisted living, so the patients we receive are more medically complex, sicker and frailer than our population 10 years ago." Given the market size and competition to service people older than 65, the revolution is unlikely to stop any time soon. |
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