Helpful Senior Resources

Colorado and Denver metro

Your county or city office

Nationwide

Not every next step means moving. Many people stay in the home they love for longer after a few practical changes: grab bars, better lighting, a step-free entry, a walk-in shower, or help with yard work and errands. In Colorado this work is often free or heavily subsidized. Brothers Redevelopment provides home modifications at no cost to qualifying homeowners, and Volunteers of America’s handyman program charges nothing for labor.

Colorado home repairs, modifications, and everyday help

Safety checklists and planning guides

If you are caring for a spouse or parent, you are entitled to support of your own — respite, training, support groups, and someone to talk to at two in the morning. The Alzheimer’s Association staffs a free helpline 24 hours a day at 800-272-3900. Nearly 91,000 Coloradans are living with Alzheimer’s and 178,000 family members are providing unpaid care, so you are in very ordinary company. Asking for help early tends to keep everyone healthier than waiting until you are past exhausted.

Colorado

Nationwide

Colorado licenses assisted living residences, nursing facilities, adult day programs and home care agencies, and it publishes the inspection records. Before you tour anywhere, look the place up. Use the state’s Find and Compare Facilities tool for licensing and survey history, and Medicare Care Compare for federally certified nursing homes and home health agencies. Independent living and 55+ communities are not state-licensed, so those you evaluate by visiting, talking to residents away from the tour guide and reading the contract closely.

Research a specific facility or agency

Find housing you can afford

Get a professional in your corner

The hardest part of a later-life move is usually not the truck — it is deciding what happens to forty years of belongings. Senior move managers do this for a living. They sort and pack at a pace that works, arrange donations and estate sales, measure the new place and lay out the furniture before moving day, then unpack and make the bed that evening. Families who hire one often say it was the money best spent. Below is the professional directory plus the Colorado companies listed in it.

Find a senior move manager

Colorado companies in the NASMM directory

Other Colorado companies serving later-life moves

Sorting, donating, and letting go

Losing the ability to drive or cook is often what turns a manageable situation into a difficult one, and it is also one of the easiest gaps to fill. Colorado has home-delivered meals, free medically tailored meals for people with serious illness, grocery benefits, and door-through-door paratransit. Most programs have service boundaries or income limits, so call and ask — and ask about waitlists, because several of these are in heavy demand.

Meals and food assistance in Colorado

Rides and transportation

For unbiased Medicare help, call a State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) counselor. They are trained volunteers who sell nothing and earn no commission, which makes them very different from the mailers and phone calls that arrive every fall. If long-term care is the real question, Health First Colorado (Colorado Medicaid) funds home and community-based services through waiver programs that many families never hear about — including home modifications, adult day programs, respite and personal care.

Get unbiased help understanding coverage

Long-term care and Colorado Medicaid

Help with medication, dental, and other costs

Vision and hearing changes

If you or your late spouse served, there may be benefits on the table that nobody has mentioned. Aid and Attendance is an increase to a VA pension for veterans and surviving spouses who need help with daily activities, and it can be applied toward assisted living or in-home care. Veteran-Directed Care gives eligible veterans a budget they manage themselves — and they may hire a family member or neighbor as the paid caregiver. Both are commonly overlooked.

Start with BenefitsCheckUp. It is a free screening that takes about fifteen minutes and checks dozens of programs at once for food, healthcare, housing and utility help. Then look at the Colorado-specific items below. Billions in benefits go unclaimed every year, mostly because people assume they earn too much to qualify or that the paperwork is not worth it.

Screen for everything at once

Property tax, rent, and utility relief in Colorado

Taxes and home equity decisions

Three documents prevent most of the emergencies families run into: a medical power of attorney, a financial power of attorney, and clear written healthcare wishes. Colorado's health department puts it plainly — everyone over 18 should have at minimum a Medical Durable Power of Attorney and have had the conversation with the people who matter. Getting this done while everyone is well is far easier than sorting it out in a hospital hallway.

Legal help and documents

If you are worried about someone's safety or money

Isolation affects health as much as many medical conditions, and it tends to creep up quietly after a move, a loss, or the end of driving. Colorado has good options: technology classes built for older learners, city recreation programs, volunteer placements, neighbor-to-neighbor networks, and a phone-buddy program that will simply call to check in. If you or someone you love is struggling, you can reach a trained counselor any hour by calling or texting 988.

Colorado

Nationwide

The organizations above handle care, benefits, meals and legal questions. Our part is narrower: the house. Ross King is a Seniors Real Estate Specialist® (SRES®), a designation for agents trained in the financial and emotional realities of later-life moves. We help families think through staying put, preparing a home for sale, selling as-is, a quieter off-market option, or moving to something easier to manage — and we are comfortable being told the answer is “not yet.”