Live Well at Home: A Resource for Minnesota Seniors and Caregivers
Did you know there’s a free resource to help you determine whether it’s safe for your elderly loved one to be living at home? If you have been questioning whether it may be time to consider different living arrangements, this tool can help provide some tangible backing to the answer you may already be sensing in your gut.
Start by going to www.mnlivewellathome.org. The quiz can be taken by the individual in question or by a family member. There’s an option to print the quiz and have an individual answer the questions offline if it’s easier--you’ll just need to go back and enter the answers later to find out the results. Once you’ve completed the quiz, you can click on “See Your Results”. The results will give you a numerical score and a risk level for needing to move out of the home. The website also gives the option of printing your results so that you can complete this quiz over a period of time to monitor level of risk as your loved one ages.
Once you’ve got your score, you can scroll down to Step 2 and click on “Make Your Choices”. Here, you can make a plan for addressing some of the concerns identified in the initial quiz. There’s an option to download a template for a fillable planning document, and there are additional resources for each of the concerns listed. There’s also a tool to help calculate costs for various housing options, just click on the appropriate link on the page. From here, click on “Go to Step 3” to learn more about taking action. You can learn more about self-directed services by clicking on the provided link. This step involves putting into action what you identified as being supports in Step 2.
Lastly, Step 4 is where you evaluate your results. The image below shows the steps to “building your house”, which includes all four of the steps we’ve covered.
If you are a family member helping a loved one work through the questions in this quiz, it could be helpful for both you and the individual to provide your own answers to the quiz and then compare results. One benefit to doing it this way is to spark conversation about the topics brought up in the quiz and to address any differences in perception that may exist between the two of you. If you'd prefer to answer the questions together, that would be fine too. Regardless of how you do it, use it as a tool to encourage open communication. Always remember to address this topic as respectfully and tactfully as possible. For many people, it's not easy to consider giving up the independence of living at home, so keep this in mind as you discuss. If you find the conversation becoming difficult to continue, simply take a breather and come back to the topic after both parties have had some time to cool down.
One thing to note is that not all of the links are live on this site, so it may be difficult to access some of the information that appears to be available. If you run into an error page, simply use the back button to try another option.
