Plan Your Lifespan – Make Plans for Future Health Events with this Online Tool
- Sam Bostater
- Apr 29
- 5 min read
Contents
Why You Need to Make Plans for Future Health Events
The United States is getting older. So are you and so is your family.
In 2020, about one in six people in the United States were age 65 and over.
As we grow older, the chances of major health events increase. We may experience hospitalizations, falls, memory loss and more.
The unpredictability and uncertainty of these events can cause a significant amount of stress. When you create a plan, you are prepared for decisions about the care you want to receive.
Creating a plan can save you and your family from additional stress surrounding major health events that may have been avoided.
Plan Your Lifespan is a website that provides older adults and their caregivers with valuable information and an easy-to-use tool that you can fill in with your plans, make updates as needed and easily share it with family and friends.
What Plan Your Lifespan Helps With
Created by a team of seniors, geriatricians, university researchers, social workers, communication experts and home care specialists, Plan Your Lifespan is an evidence-based website that walks you through planning for some of life’s most common major health events, including:
Hospitalizations
Falls
Memory Loss & Alzheimer’s
In addition to helping you prepare for these events; Plan Your Lifespan also provides practical information on how to share your plans with others and discusses some of the options you have for financing those plans.
Let’s take a short look at each of the areas in which Plan Your Lifespan offers support.
Hospitalizations
Each year, adults age 65 and older account for more than 13 million hospitalizations in the United States.
When hospitalizations occur, the person affected is often sick or physically weak. This makes it difficult to participate in decisions about their own care.
To make this situation easier, Plan Your Lifespan helps individuals and families prepare by walking through the following information:
Options for rehabilitation
Challenges associated with returning home after hospitalization
Options for support when returning home
Designating specific individuals who will assist with certain tasks after discharge from the hospital
Furthermore, the website offers a fillable form outlining the essential contact information a hospital will need as well as the individual’s preferences for rehabilitation, home care, etc.
Fall Prevention
One in four (nearly 14 million) adults aged 65 and older report a fall each year. Of those, about 37% report that they need medical treatment for their fall.
Falls can often result in broken bones or fractures, which require medical treatment in order to address.
Plan Your Lifespan offers a checklist for steps you can take to reduce your risk of a fall, which includes things like:
Attaching rugs to the floor so they do not move around
Install handrails in the bathroom
Identify elevated thresholds with reflective tape
The website also identifies steps you can take if you are concerned about your fall risk, including:
Talking to your physician
Reaching out to your local Area Agency on Aging for assistance with home modifications
Getting consistent physical exercise
Memory Loss
Every three seconds, someone in the world develops dementia. Are you and your family prepared in case you are next?
The memory loss module of Plan Your Lifespan can help you do just that.
In many cases, older adults experience trouble focusing and remembering things, which leads them to believe they have dementia.
Plan Your Lifespan begins with a brief explanation of how you can tell the difference. It then proceeds to discuss the various challenges one might face when living with dementia.
One example is managing bills and personal finances. The website offers a number of tips for keeping track of finances and even gives you the opportunity to designate a trusted contact who can offer
support managing your finances.
Additional challenges addressed include:
Transportation
Medication management
Getting lost/wandering
Finally, the module concludes by prompting you to choose a goal. Whether it’s moving in with someone or staying in your own home for as long as possible.
Communicating Your Plans
Talking about future health events can be challenging, whether you’re worried about being a burden or you simply don’t want to discuss a topic that most people would consider sad.
If you find yourself avoiding the conversation, remember that delaying is not going to help. The longer you wait, the more likely a crisis is to occur when a major health event arises.
Talking now allows you to plan for the life that you want to have.
Plan Your Lifespan offers realistic advice about how to begin the conversation. Specifically, the website covers:
What to say
Example conversation starters
Who to talk to
What to do if the people you are talking to won’t listen
Whether you want to make plans for yourself or an aging loved one, Plan Your Lifespan can help you feel more confident about bringing up the conversation.
How to Pay for Your Plans
The final module on the Plan Your Lifespan website covers finances. Specifically, how you can pay for your plans and future health services.
Receiving a bill for a treatment or procedure can easily feel overwhelming. To prevent yourself from being blindsided by a when bills do start coming in, it is a good idea to have a plan about how you will pay for unexpected health events.
Plan Your Lifespan offers a basic overview of the services that Medicare and long term care insurance are able to cover.
In addition to exploring the finance module on Plan Your Lifespan, we encourage you to Just Call Us to learn more about your options.
When is the Right Time to Make Plans?
The simplest answer to this question is now!
The longer you wait to make plans, the more likely you or an aging family member is to have a major health event.
Generally, it is a good idea to have a plan by the time you turn 65, as the likelihood of a hospitalization or other major health event begins to increase at this age.
No matter when you create your plan, be sure to review it at least every other year to make sure everything is up to date.
Get Connected to Community-Based Services and Supports
The AIHS Aging & Disability Resource Center provides streamlined access to information, care options, short-term case management and benefits enrollment across a spectrum of long-term care services and supports.
If you are looking for a community-based service such as a home care provider, financial planner or something else, Just Call Us!
Our Options Counselors are trained under the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), and can help provide guidance about government programs that may be able to help finance your plans and health services.