For families with aging relatives in or around the region, senior living communities like Aegis of Kirkland have created a file to help their transition into assistance care.

Known as the “Red Crisis File,” it contains practical legal documents necessary for respite care, assisted living and memory care, in the event a relative suffers from a disease, illness or injury that makes them incapable of caring for themselves. A completed file also contains emergency information, copy of the person’s photo ID, as well as medical authorizations.

General Manager Gary Jacobs said that the packet, created by a person at the Aegis of Issaquah, was inspired after years of observing how people were unprepared for emergency situations.

“We said ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we could give people the information at once?’” he said.

One of the many situations adult children face is that their parents will avoid moving out of their home for as long as possible, so that by the time they end up having to leave it’s due to a medical condition.

“Nobody ever wants their parents to leave the home they’re raised in,” Jacobs said. “But then they start to realize it’s more urgent. A crisis, an emergency trip to the hospital. That’s kind of the impetus. If they had all the information at once, they can be prepared for this. But indications are there they just haven’t come to grips with it and aren’t prepared for it.”

Jacobs said that making the files available to people who stop by their locations, even if they decide not to enter assisted living yet, helps places like Aegis when they eventually do.

“It’s really interesting how similar it is,” he said. “This is the first time for the family to get to this point. The adult children are trying to take care of mom and dad, but they’ve got their own jobs. They’re in kind of a desperate situation. You can see the panic the fear the worry and the wonder of what to do.”

What it also does, he said, is make the family more aware of their relative’s health and wellbeing so that they are more proactive instead of reacting to emergencies.

“What happens is that if they do have a fall or a break of some sort, there’s a recovery time,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll get admitted to urgent care, a skilled nursing facility to intensive care recovery. That’s when they’re saying ‘Hey, what are our options?’ This is where, even if it’s going to a hospital, they don’t know what they need. Because they haven’t talked about it before, they don’t even know what it takes. They don’t even know what the state requires or what their options are. They’re calling and asking around and desperately trying to find answers. Aegis is trying to be a guide.”

Jacob said they see the packet as becoming popular as more of the Baby Boomer generation retire and reach an age where, according to the Pew Research Center, 10,00 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day and will do so for the next 19 years.

“We’re at the front end of that,” he said. “They’re in that bulk of the population now in this window when they’re going to have to start considering what to do.”

Additionally, Baby Boomers are living longer than their parents, thanks in part to modern medicine. However, Jacobs said that another driving force behind the number of assisted living residents are changes in the economy.

“I think the economy has forced a lot of people to be dual income families, whereas back not too many years families would do their best to build a mother in law apartment and try to take care of a multigenerational household,” he said. “Now they’re stretched and don’t have the time or ability because some of the complications with old age, health issues, especially dementia, which requires 24/7 demand because of the different behaviors. It becomes really an issue of survival, and for adult children caregivers this can wear the whole family.”

According to the National Center for Assisted Living, 54 percent of assisted living residents in 2010 were 85 years or older, with 27 percent 75-84 years old. Only 9 percent of residents were between 65 and 74 years, and 11 percent were younger than 65 years old.