By Angela Singer
Living in your own home through old age is what many hope for, but few can plan for. Presbyterian Support East Coast, through its Enliven positive aging services, has recently begun an innovative programme that makes staying at home viable for older New Zealanders.
Called Enliven Homeshare, the programme is based on an exchange: householders provide accommodation in their own homes to homesharers who, in turn, provide around eight hours of help each week. Faith Kaufman, East Coast Enliven services manager, describes Homeshare as “inter-generational flatting”.
Faith says Homeshare is a great service that is ideal for older people “frightened to be alone in their homes at night”. She says that Homeshare is a tried and tested programme that has been run successfully in the United States, Europe and Australia for many years, “where it has been shown to keep people out of rest homes for up to 18 months. They also run Homeshare for people with disabilities”.
Matching the right householder to the right homesharer is the key to the programme’s success, says Deborah Biggs, East Coast Enliven Homeshare coordinator.
“A lot of time is spent getting to know the homesharers and the householders so we are not just matching up the first two people. We match them on interests, hobbies and habits so that hopefully they will stay together long term. We like our sharers to commit to each other for at least six months, but of course things can come up and things change. Both sign an agreement stating what each party is expecting so that there are no surprises.”
The contract, Deborah says, can include the younger person paying little or no rent in return for the helping the older person with household chores, caring for and exercising pets (the homeowner may even allow the sharer their own pets), sleeping in the house and keeping the older person company. Homesharers continue their usual occupation by day. “An add-on benefit is that the older person gets companionship and the older person’s family get peace of mind”.
Deborah stresses that the home sharer does not provide personal care to the householder and cannot receive gifts; the home sharer is a helper. “There is a lot of support provided to the householder, the potential home sharer is interviewed by me, police checks are done and there are three reference checks”.
The first East Coast Homeshare match is currently being coordinated, Deborah says; it has taken several months of interviews to get the “right two people”.
Although Enliven Homeshare is only available in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, Faith says she would be very surprised if Homeshare was not picked up by other Presbyterian Support regions. “Homeshare works very well in cities with universities, as the homesharers tend to be older university students or students from overseas”.
More information is available at www.enlivenhomeshare.co.nz.