There is nothing as certain as change…..

We have moved our office and now have a new address and fax number:
Consultants for Aging Families, LLC
P.O. Box 271882
Fort Collins, CO 80527     Fax: (970) 207-1183

Our phone number (970) 498-0730 remains unchanged, as does our passion and energy for assisting families and elders to embrace this time in their lives with a sense of fulfillment and completion.

It is never too late to change the way we look at growing older and wiser. It is never too late to learn how to enhance relationships and find the family connections we crave. Embracing change is part and parcel of healthy growth and development (otherwise known as “aging”). Each of us has a choice about how we wish to spend the rest of our lives. Of course, the road ahead we can’t clearly see will present sudden curves and pot-holes to be either endured or avoided. One can’t predict everything, nor can one be prepared for every contingency. This is true no matter how smart we are and how hard we try.

What one can do, however, is learn for once and for all, that we do have choices. Avoiding risk is avoiding action. (I think someone famous said that or something like that!) When families and elders fail to take risks to do what THEY want because some professional someone gives a one dimensional direction, they DO make a choice. Any choice bears consequences. Isn’t it better to make the choice of one’s own heart and deal with consequences positive or negative, than to be pushed into a choice of someone else…..only to deal with the disappointing results?

Our health care and elder care system has become standardized and regulated. The goals of standardization and regulation are laudable. And each time a new regulation is adopted to protect someone’s interests and each time an inviting social experiment becomes the standard, we are constrained and limited. Our freedom of choice and our autonomy are threatened and we become, as a colleague said recently, “just a rider on the bus.”

If you want to live in a luxurious, or even a more modest, senior community, go for it! Just know exactly what you are getting into. The process is analogous to buying a car, an appliance or a home…..The consumer weighs the pro’s and the con’s and then decides based on the available and accurate data. In making the decision, one also accepts the accompanying consequences, good or not so good. But don’t be afraid to think outside the box and do something different! Get the facts and move forward with anticipation of good things yet unknown!