MANCHESTER — This weekend's Senior Move Expo at the Center of New Hampshire/Radisson is aimed at both seniors and their children.

“The ultimate would be to have people come with their parents,” Expo Director Greg Connolly said.

A major goal of the Saturday event is to show what's out there in terms of housing and health care options, as well as make it easier to talk about potential changes in living arrangements.

“We wanted to focus specifically on issues surrounding the options available to seniors who need or want to make a change in their living status,” said Connolly. “No one's ever done this before.”

Exhibitors representing various types of housing, health and other services can answer specific questions, including cost questions. Seminars will address topics that include planning for Alzheimer's care, resources to enable seniors to stay at home, how to organize a sale and move to senior housing, planning for the costs of long-term care, estate planning, and advanced technology to make staying at home healthier and safer.

The New Hampshire Union Leader is a sponsor of the event.

Connolly and Laura Hanson run a marketing business that works with many people in the assisted living and related industries, helping them reach potential clients.

“Then we kind of turned it around. What about people who are looking for places,” said Connolly.

He said there are many choices — independent living residences, assisted-living communities, complexes that offer the option of a progression from total independence to nursing home care in one location, home health services, and adult day care.

The need for those options is growing, he said. People are living active lives longer.

“We saw two needs, on the industry side and the consumer side,” said Connolly.

For 80 million aging baby boomers, Connolly said, “This is staring you in the face whether you like it or not.”

Eldon Munson, president of NH ARCH, the New Hampshire Association of Residential Care Homes, said a goal of the expo is to enable people to plan ahead.

“It's to make people who are unaware aware,” said Munson.

Thinking about things before the worst happens, said Munson, means seniors and their adult children won't panic if there is an emergency and they get a call from the hospital that mom or dad can't go back home to live.

Home-like setting

Munson said many people want to stay close to family and select small, owner-operated residences, “very much an offshoot of the old style, where people took in boarders.”

Some facilities cater to people with specific lifestyle preferences, like the Pyareo Home in Sanbornton. The Pyareo Home offers support in a home-like setting for up to seven people who do not smoke or drink alcohol, are willing to eat a lacto-vegetarian diet, and enjoy or can tolerate a communal lifestyle.

“It's homey, not institutional,” said Administrator Wendy Hobbs.

The building is designed with large windows and plenty of natural light and plants.

“It's rural. We have gardens,” she said, that provide some of the home's food as well as attract birds.

Board president Peter Bacon said, “It's a unique group that we are attracting.”

Over the past 10 years, half to two-thirds of the residents have had some connection to the Sant Bani Ashram.

A larger facility

Other assisted-living facilities offer a very different setting and lifestyle. At the Courville Communities' Carlyle Place in Bedford, there is an activities director to plan and supervise in-house and off-site activities for the 70 residents. There are barber and beauty shops on premises.

Best of all, for some people, a larger facility offers a wider pool of new friends.

Some people, who don't need any services but also don't want to stay in their current family home after retirement, may opt for a buy-in facility like The Huntington at Nashua, which offers fully independent cottage or apartment living, with options for assisted living or nursing care, if eventually needed.

“It's a huge life decision,” said Tom Barrett, vice president of the Courville Communities.

In addition to Carlyle Place, Courville has independent living Villas at Nashua, as well as an assisted-living and a nursing home/rehab facility in Nashua. The Courville at Manchester is primarily a skilled nursing facility, although their are there are 12 assisted living slots.

“There are so many options out there. Unless you are a student of the industry, where do you start?” said Barrett.

Medicare

“Most people want to stay in their home,” Gina Balkus, chief executive officer of the Home Care Association of New Hampshire, said. There are agencies that can provide the services needed to make that possible. But she cautioned: “There are limitations on what Medicare will cover.”

Attendance is free at the Senior Move Expo, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Center of New Hampshire/Radisson. For more info, go to www.seniormoveexpo.com