Colorado Springs veteran opens business to help older adults age in place

Jan. 13—For older adults and their families, aging poses the question: Where will I spend the later years of my life? Often that question is a tug of war between the choice of a senior living facility or aging in place, also known as staying in one's own home.

In the U.S., the population of people 65-and older grew by over a third over the past decade. More than 55 million Americans are 65 or older, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.

The options of senior housing facilities contain a spectrum of home types from independent living, where there is minimal oversight, and there are often daily activities available, to the other end of the continuum — skilled nursing homes where 24-hour-a-day medical care is provided.

But for older adults, the independence and familiarity of staying in one's home can be an attractive outcome.

Obie Pilkington, a franchisee of TruBlue Total House Care, started with the company that makes safety modifications to homes for older adults and performs house upkeep and chores for them.

The option of aging in place became even more enticing for older people during the pandemic when social distancing and the ability to quarantine became a vital need, Pilkington said.

Pilkington is a retired Army veteran with 20 years of military service. As a cancer survivor and a father of a child with disabilities, Pilkington knew he wanted the next stage of his career after the Army to be one dedicated to the service of others.

A major impetus for Pilkington to franchise with TruBlue came after he and his wife moved his mother-in-law from Texas to Colorado Springs 11/2 years ago.

"We tried doing that in the middle of COVID at the beginning ...(with) no one there to coordinate everything," Pilkington said. "I was like, 'There's got to be a better way to do this.'"

After the move, his mother-in-law was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a type of memory loss that has a rapid onset.

Pilkington and his wife worked with a social worker and brought his mother-in-law home from the hospital. When they realized they could not manage the situation on their own, they called back the social worker.

"Not my problem, you picked her up from the hospital," Pilkington said the social worker told him.

Pilkington said he was devastated.

"Where's the passion of taking care of our seniors?" Pilkington asked himself.

That's why he now spends his working days devoted to helping seniors. He strives to make it possible for them to stay in their home as long as possible.

Pilkington opened the first TruBlue in Colorado Springs and the second overall in Colorado, a TruBlue spokeswoman said.

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The company visits customers' homes and provides a safety assessment inside and out, recommends modifications and helps carry out those changes.

"It's a pretty unique offering from a traditional handyman-service," Sean Fitzgerald, TruBlue's president, said. "There is a big challenge with aging in place and that is the home environment."

Features as simple as area rugs can be hazards.

That's why the company also offers a subscription model for home upkeep or chores with personal visits each month or every several months to help change furnace filters, put heavy boxes on shelves or install a grab bar in bathrooms and other high-risk fall areas.

"The ultimate goal is keeping people in their home longer," Fitzgerald said. "... At the end of the day it's providing peace of mind."

Pilkington launched his Colorado Springs branch of the business in October with a handful of workers.

He tries to hire veterans and wants to work on scaling up his business, Pilkington said.

Pilkington is not alone in his effort to help seniors. Other community programs seek to make sure seniors stay safe in their homes, too.

Lori Morgan, a trauma outreach and injury prevention specialist with UCHealth Memorial Injury Prevention and Research Institute, conducts safety inspections of homes to help older adults avoid ending up in the hospital. The effort is part of UCHealth's free Aging with Independence and Mobility program.

"By far falls are the top mechanism of injury and that continues to grow every year as our population ages," Morgan said.

UCHealth also offers Stepping On, a free seven-week class designed to help reduce falls in older people with lectures and balance and strength-training classes.

But aging in place has more dimensions than home safety and physical mobility, Erin Maruzzella, executive director for Innovations in Aging Collaborative, said.

The local nonprofit seeks to bring the community together to creatively address the challenges and opportunities of aging, the organization's website states.

There are many reasons that go into deciding to age in place including transportation, community support, health care access, internet access and workforce, Maruzzella said.

"I would encourage older adults and their families to consider the whole network of the factors that will increase people's success aging in place," Maruzzella said

Pilkington believes he is a piece of that network.

"By doing the simple stuff that gets neglected we can keep homes safer," Pilkington said. "It gives them (older residents) more freedom."