Seventy-five onward. Capacity is lost gradually and dependence returns. The friction list is almost identical to infancy — feeding, washing, waste, supervision, mobility, an inability to say what hurts — but it is felt with an adult's awareness of what is happening, and paid for by a family rather than provided by one. This is the phase where the care-labour shortage bites hardest.
12 first-order frictions arise in this phase.
Everything this entry connects to directly. Click any point to follow it.
The activities of daily living, one by one, require another person.
Home care and home health aides, Assisted living, Nursing homes, Family caregiving and Home and care robots.
Dementia turns a person into someone who must be managed.
Power of attorney, Memory care, Dementia diagnosis and treatment and Guardianship and conservatorship.
The leading cause of injury death in old age.
Ageing-in-place home modifications, Medical alert devices, Walkers, stairlifts, and mobility aids and Physical therapy and fall-prevention.
Polypharmacy: the treatments interact, and the patient cannot track them.
Geriatric medicine and Pill dispensers and pharmacy delivery.
The hospital is where the old go to get weaker.
Nurse lines and pediatric telehealth, Geriatric care management and Hospital-at-home and remote monitoring.
The frictions of infancy, felt with an adult's awareness.
Home care and home health aides and Adult incontinence products.
Loneliness is now a medical risk factor.
Companion and visiting services, Simplified video-calling devices for the old and AI companions.
Malnutrition is common in the old; dysphagia makes every meal a risk.
Senior meal delivery, Home care and home health aides and Medical nutrition and supplements.
The last chance to tell the grandchildren who you were.
Genealogy and DNA ancestry, Simplified video-calling devices for the old and Life-story and memoir services.
Treatment, money, and residence will all be chosen by someone else.
Power of attorney, Guardianship and conservatorship and Advance directives and living wills.
Treatment now buys time at the cost of comfort.
Palliative care and Hospice.