Aging Well HQ

What they need help with

Everything a family might need, in one place — not just where she lives. Nine areas. You will need some of them and not others, and the point of reading the whole list once is that most families meet the rest of it one crisis at a time.

What is hard right now?

Tick what is true. Nothing here is a diagnosis, nothing is sent to us, and nothing gets hidden — it only decides what is worth showing you first.

How complete each list is, said out loud. Our data is deep in one of these areas and thin in others, so every area below carries one of three labels rather than letting you assume.

  • Complete list — we list every provider from a public register, in an order nobody can buy.
  • Official source — the real list is public and somebody else keeps it current. We explain it and send you there rather than copying it, because a stale copy of a public service is worse than a link to the live one.
  • No register exists — nobody licenses or rates these, so we tell you how to choose and what to check, and never publish a ranking we cannot stand behind.

Where they live

Complete list

Every licensed setting in the state, from the state's own register. A move is one option on this list, not the point of it — staying put is a row here too.

Independent living · Assisted living · Residential care · Memory care · Adult foster home · Nursing facility · CCRC

Care that comes to them

Official source

Nursing care at home and help with daily life are two different things with two different payers, and almost every family confuses them once. This is the difference, and what each costs you.

Home health (nursing, physical therapy) · In-home caregivers · Hiring someone directly · Adult day services · Respite care · Hospice & palliative care

Food and daily living

Official source

Meals, housekeeping, laundry, company. The unglamorous half of staying at home, and the half that usually slips first.

Home-delivered meals · Commercial meal delivery · Grocery delivery · Housekeeping · Laundry · Bathing & grooming help · Companionship visits · Pet care

Safety, monitoring and devices

No register exists

Alert buttons, fall detection, sensors, cameras, pill dispensers. Nobody licenses this and nobody publishes a trustworthy ranking, so we will not pretend to.

Medical alert & fall detection · GPS locator for wandering · Activity sensors · Stove, door and water sensors · Cameras · Pill dispensers · Hearing aids · Grab bars, ramps, stairlifts

Health and medicine

Official source

Doctors, pharmacy, therapy, and the specialists nobody tells you exist — a geriatrician is not the same as a family doctor who has older patients.

Primary care & geriatrics · Specialists · Pharmacy & delivery · Medication packaging · Therapy at home · Dental, vision, hearing · Telehealth · Dialysis

The house itself

No register exists

The jobs a parent quietly stopped doing. Usually the cheapest thing on this whole list and the one that buys the most time at home.

Lawn & snow · Handyman · Heating & plumbing · Accessibility changes · Home safety assessment · Downsizing & move managers · Cleanouts

Getting around

Official source

Volunteer driver programmes and paratransit are free or nearly free in most counties, and almost nobody knows they exist.

Medical transport · Volunteer drivers · Paratransit · Rideshare for older adults · Driving assessment · Giving up the car keys

People who help you decide

Official source

You do not have to be the only person working on this. Three of these are free and independent of the industry, which is more than can be said for most of the advice online.

Area Agency on Aging · Long-term-care ombudsman · Geriatric care manager · Hospital discharge planner · Support groups · Respite for you

Why the free option is always listed first

Where a subsidised or public service exists — the meal programme, the volunteer driver scheme, the ombudsman, your Area Agency on Aging — it appears above the paid alternative, every time. That is not generosity; it is the same rule as the rest of this site. Money never changes what we recommend, and the day any of this earns us something, the page that earns it will say so on the page.