AGE IN PLACE OR FIND A NEW SPACE

Your house needs to change along with your lifestyle as your body declines, according to this insightful guide to age-supportive environments.

Chiang, an occupational therapist and founder of Evolving Homes, argues that our surroundings, habits, and technology must adapt to the physical and mental impairments that come with aging. Much of the book explores home remodeling ideas, like widening doorways to facilitate wheelchairs, eliminating unnecessary steps, rugs, and other tripping hazards, vetting furniture—glass coffee tables are a low-visibility stumbling menace—and installing high-tech doors that open automatically for residents. The author tours a workshop of new gadgetry, including smart faucets that can be verbally ordered to measure out six ounces of hot water and electrically powered pants that help with a hike in the hills. Fitness is a must for warding off illness and debility, she reminds readers, and she suggests a number of simple sit-and-stand and arm-raising exercises to get moving, along with tips on crafting easy-to-remember routines for preparing meals, taking meds, and staying hydrated. Other chapters cover the special needs of Parkinson’s patients and the reluctance of some to make necessary accommodations like installing bathroom grab bars, which many regard as the Grim Reaper’s calling card. (Chiang suggests calling them “reassurance rails.”) The author’s discussion of these issues is comprehensive, lucid and detailed, and she includes easy-to-use checklists for readers to use when planning household revamps, along with lists of resources and companies who help with transitions. The book is also a fascinating disquisition on how we interact with our homes in ways that have profound consequences that we rarely think about, conveyed in vivid prose that’s informed by subtle, telling observations. (“The oversized armchair completely swallowed this tiny woman,” she writes of one client. “Not only did it put her in poor posture, but she also had to use momentum to stand up every single time—a major fall risk.”) Seniors and their families will find here a splendid blueprint for planning a more comfortable and fulfilling retirement.

A warmly reassuring primer on environments that foster graceful aging.