7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Who: Seniors and people over the age of 55 with disposable income or long-term care benefits
What: There is not enough capacity to care for these individuals as they age
Why: Current long-term care infrastructure is designed to handle the current populations and is constantly playing catch-up

Testing the who:
Yes, everyone in my market shares this need, unless they die suddenly before they need long-term attentive care. Even if your family is the one taking care of you, everyone needs help when they age.

 Testing the what:
The degree of need and the type of need demanded change based on demographics. Elders with higher disposable income typically prefer live-in care, home modifications or regular visitation from a health professional. People with less benefits or disposable income prefer less expensive group homes.

 Testing the why:
The only people who my why does not apply to are those who are already in a facility or have long-term care.

 Interviews Summary:
I interviewed 5 people, two were in their 50's and 60's, starting to think about long-term care. Two were in their 70's, they had already figured out on their plan. One was living in a long-term care facility. The individual in the facility did not perceive any needs. She is under contract, and can only be evicted from her facility if she poses a threat to other residents or if she becomes delinquent on her fixed payment plan. The individuals who have already figured out their plan, are worried about the quality of care in a group home. Because of this, they have already planned on moving to a new residence or investing in home modifications to make their home more senior friendly. They plan to have care-givers who come to their house. The two individuals who are starting to think about long-term care are most concerned by the price. They haven't made a decision about their strategy, but they are concerned that their long-term care will eat up their savings and leave nothing for them to live off of. Given these interviews, I think my solutions will have to be flexible enough to meet all the needs of the individuals above. Most importantly, it will have to be cost effective.

Comments

  1. Madylin McConnellFebruary 8, 2020 at 3:56 PM

    Hi Zach!
    I think you have the right idea about your opportunity. I think you did a good job of defining the who, what, and why. However, it was unclear what your opportunity was until I read through the whole post. Maybe next time try to include the opportunity as a separate bullet so that your ideas are portrayed more clearly. Also, I think you could spend a little more time to explain your ideas more clearly next time.
    ~Mady

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel KaplanFebruary 9, 2020 at 10:47 AM

    Hi Zach!

    I think your ideas were portrayed very efficiently. I really enjoyed reading through this blog post. I think that taking care of the elderly would be a very good opportunity. I think your testing the what section provided a lot of clear evidence pointing that this will work. Your conclusion seems to be very accurate and unbiased. I think you provided enough data about this opportunity to support the conclusion you stated.

    ReplyDelete

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