WATERLOO - With a little planning, home health-care experts believe senior citizens can remain in their homes longer.

Seniors want it, it's better for the community and it could save individuals and taxpayers money in the long run if the country's older population live in their own homes longer, experts believe.

Home medical equipment providers and vendors investigated ways to make this happen Wednesday at the Heartland Conference, held at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center. The event is sponsored by Van G. Miller and Associates, a home medical care company that originally negotiated contracts between major home medical equipment manufactures and independent dealers, but has since diversified into many other medical and non-medical entities.

Aging in Place is just one of 90 mini-seminars to be presented during the four-day conference that ends Friday. About 750 people from across the country have converged on Waterloo for the event.

Louis Tenenbaum, an independent living strategist from Potomac, Md., said aging in place is more important than ever as the baby-boom generation - people born in the years following World War II - nears retirement. People 85 years old or older is one of the most rapidly growing age demographics in the country today, and the boomers are right behind them.

"I think aging in place is the future. The numbers say it has to be," Tenenbaum said. "There's great business and service opportunities here."

Tenenbaum quoted a survey that said 80 percent of Americans 45 years old and older want to stay in their own homes indefinitely.

But, in order to do that, Tenenbaum - a former building contractor who now specializes in refurbishing homes for the elderly - said steps have to be taken well in advance.

Coordinating services will be the key to success. Local medical equipment retailers, contractors, home maintenance experts and financial specialists all have to work together, Tenenbaum said. It's not only good business, but good for the customers as well.

"Providers need to be ready, and customers too. Spend a few dollars up front to make sure you don't get caught," he said. "(The elderly) are part of the community, and to continually pluck people out of their homes tears at the fabric of society."

Often houses aren't designed with a home owner's golden years in mind. Stairways are too narrow, lighting is inadequate or too bright and bathrooms - where a lot of bending and sitting is required - aren't equipped to counter the body as it ages.

Simple things like grab bars in the bathtub, repairing a cracked sidewalk, making sure the front porch is sturdy or installing tract lighting in the floor for late-night trips to the bathroom are all helpful.

In 2001, Tenenbaum said, 11,600 people 65 years old and older died from falls in the home.

As far as saving taxpayers money, Tenenbaum said it's much cheaper if people live at home than subsidizing nursing home care. And by making homes more senior friendly, that will cut down on Medicare claims.

Jeff Bozarth, with Keokuk Area Medical equipment, said he and his wife are building a home with not only their future needs in mind, but that of his wife's elderly mother.

"When I think of home, I think of family. Because of the business I'm in, I'm thinking about that," Bozarth said.

Contact Matthew Wilde at (319) 291-1579 or matt.wilde@wcfcourier.com.