Preparing for Coming Changes: Opportunity or Crisis?

You may be reading everywhere about the aging of today’s baby boomers. I’m one of them, and I can tell you the clock is only moving faster these days. It’s inevitable:  me, and millions of other born during the mid-century baby boom, are quickly becoming seniors. It’s really not us, though, that you need to be gearing up for; it’s our parents. Most of us have aging parents who need care and services, either now or in the readily foreseeable future.

While everyone is focused on this aging boomer market, though, there’s another market that is sneaking its way into that position of opportunity or crisis. It’s the group of individuals with autism, a group who were recently children, and who are now aging out of the public school system, often with no adult-care system in place. You may already be hearing from individuals who need help with care for these special folks, and who are beginning to check out the options, both for home care and for facility-based care.

Comparatively, it seems like a small group. After all, we know of millions of individuals with Alzheimer’s needing care. But many options have been developed for the aged and for those with dementia over the past decade or two; few options exist for individuals with autism.

According to a recent article in the Sunday Parade magazine titled “Who will care for Dana?", as many as 500,000 children with autism are entering adulthood in the near future, many with no community options available. Many families are looking for assisted living type options, with staff especially trained to meet the needs of the client with autism.

Opportunity? If your staff is trained and ready to provide care, you can easily begin to accommodate needs. If you have an underutilized building, this could be a tremendous opportunity for you to meet these special needs. Families of children and adults with autism are some of the most technologically connected folks, giving an ideal platform for information and referrals. Facebook’s Autism Speaks group, for example has nearly 800,000 “likes” – compare that to the group who “like” the Alzheimer’s Association or related organizations, none of which have even 10% of this following.

Crisis? Trying to admit a person with special needs that your staff is not trained to handle is the fast track to crisis. Watching your competition pass you by with specially certified staff is another way to crisis, even if it’s just the pit-of-the-stomach sort of crisis.

Here at aQuire Training, we’ve identified this group of caregivers as a tremendous opportunity. We’ve been listening to them and hearing what they say: their challenges are immense and the resources available to them very limited. We’re planning to develop a series of training courses, both for family caregivers and for the professional caregiving team. Let us know if you’re interested – we’ll put you on a list to get development updates.

And keep your ears to the ground. There are lots more changes coming. It’s up to us to make them opportunities, not challenges!