Many questions arise when we think about retirement and aging. Most of the questions start with “how am I going to pay for . . . “. How are you going to pay for all the possibilities of care, what are all our care options? Care management advice is an obvious need, not just for financial reasons but to get the best care possible for yourself or a family member. It’s never too early to get advice!
Geriatric Care Specialist
First recommendation . . . seek out a Geriatric Care Specialist. This can go a long way towards helping the family find better and more efficient ways of providing care for a loved one. Hiring a professional adviser to act as a guide through the maze of long term care services and providers makes sense. A Geriatric Care Specialist has been through this situation many times while the family is experiencing it usually for the first time.
The need for care management comes about as aging issues develop like the ability to move about, dress, bathe, eat, use a toilet and medicate. This need for care and advice may also be caused by an accident, disease process, disability or frailty. Most eldercare in this country is provided at home by family members. Regardless of who is taking care of whom, it is important to talk about it and have a plan.
Nationally, 60% of us will need long term care sometime during our lives. It is important for us to prepare for that day when we will need to help loved ones with care or we will need eldercare for ourselves. 40% of all seniors, 65 and older, will spend some time in a nursing home and at least 22% of all seniors are receiving some form of eldercare support in the home or in a facility.
Specialists are particularly useful in helping caregivers at home find the right services and cope with their burden. As with hiring any paid care provider to come into the home, hiring a geriatric care specialist is a similar situation. For those who desire to remain to remain in the home the geriatric care specialist can help make that a realty and keep the care recipient away from a premature admittance into a care facility.
But the geriatric care specialist can also help in the other direction. Oftentimes the family is attempting to keep a loved one at home when that is not the best situation. For various reasons care in the home may be impossible. A Geriatric Care Specialist can help you find an appropriate care community in your area.