Often caring for an aging loved can be exhausting and overwhelming. A Care Manager is a your informed resource and connection with professionals and services for elder care. Aging Life Care Management is a profession helping families and older adults adjust and cope with the challenges of aging and ensure individuals live their best life.
Care Manager’s are advocates for seniors and disabled adults. They complete comprehensive assessments, arrange and monitor in-home support, counsel and assist families in making informed decisions, and provide crisis intervention. They assess the ability to remain safely in the home, make suggestions for aging in place and/or provide support and guidance if an alternative residence may be needed. Determining appropriate living arrangements and necessary supports are among the many services they offer. Additionally, managers’s help to facilitate legal, financial, medical and end of life services.
Care Managers are liaisons for families separated by long distances or whose lives and schedules make it difficult for them to manage the day to day responsibilities. Aging Life Care Managers check in making sure they are managing well and alert families to any concerns or problems that may arise. Care Managers’s have extensive knowledge about the services and resources in their communities.
Some individuals working either independently or for a different professional may refer to themselves as “Care Managers” offering services similar to those that care managers provide.
It is important for the wise consumer to ask questions when considering hiring a trusted adviser and care manager. Some questions to ask include:
How much experience does Aging Life Care Manager have in healthcare?
What are the credentials and education of the Aging Life Care Manager?
Are they Licensed, Bonded and Insured? Ask to see it
Are they a member of the National and State Associations of Aging Life Care Care Managers?
What types of services do they offer?
Can they provide references from clients/families?
What are the fees and costs for services? Do they receive referral fees from service vendors they connect you with and do they refer outside this network based on your specific needs?
When selecting either a Professional Care Management Agency or an Individual, the process should be comprehensive and cautious. The answers to your questions will assist you in
determining whether that particular Agency or Sole Proprietor has the qualifications important to you for a successful relationship.
When is it time to reach out to a professional care manager?
When there’s no local support system in place or family lives too far away to assist regularly.
Family members are unable to determine needs, agree on options, arrange for or oversee care.
If the burden of providing care is threatening the health of the spouse or primary caregiver.
When placement in a facility is necessary and your not sure what fits both care needs and budget.
Your loved one displays inappropriate behavior, uses poor judgment or may be easily victimized.
