Understanding Your Long-Term Care Options

"Mom had a fall." I'd come to dread the four words uttered on the other end of the phone, but there they were. Again. Mom had just recovered from her most recent fall last summer when she'd fractured a vertebrae, and I thought things were getting better.

Search for In-Home Senior Care Options Available Near Your Parent or Loved One:     Select a state     Alabama     Alaska     Alberta     Arizona     Arkansas     British Columbia     California     Colorado     Connecticut     Delaware     District of Columbia     Florida     Georgia     Hawaii     Idaho     Illinois     Indiana     Iowa     Kansas     Kentucky     Louisiana     Maine     Manitoba     Maryland     Massachusetts     Michigan     Minnesota     Mississippi     Missouri     Montana     Nebraska     Nevada     New Brunswick     New Hampshire     New Jersey     New Mexico     New York     Newfoundland     North Carolina     North Dakota     Northwest Territories     Nova Scotia     Nunavut     Ohio     Oklahoma     Ontario     Oregon     Pennsylvania     Prince Edward Island     Quebec     Rhode Island     Saskatchewan     South Carolina     South Dakota     Tennessee     Texas     Utah     Vermont     Virginia     Washington     West Virginia     Wisconsin     Wyoming     Yukon     

Search by zip code

I found myself lurched back into the reality of the moment. My mother needed to explore options for assistance. It's a conversation that I'd tried to start a hundred times before but just couldn't figure out how to do it. I was suddenly faced with the need to make a life-changing decision. But first, I had to know: what were my Mom's options for assistance?

This concern is shared by millions of seniors, adult children, friends and neighbors, around the world. It isn't a simple problem. The answers involve complex financial, emotional, physical and spiritual considerations, but there are many ways to get an older adult the help they need. When you boil down the choices though, there are really three routes to take:

• Provide assistance within the senior's home, allowing them to remain in their own house.
• Create a place for them to stay in your home (or a relative's).
• Find an alternative residence or care facility, for example, a Residential Care Facility (RCF), or a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).

How Do I Make a Choice About Care?

I certainly wasn't the only person whose parent had experienced a bad fall. Every year, the need to make long-term care decisions is precipitated by a fall, an illness, Alzheimer's or Dementia, or the sudden death of an older adult's spouse. Suddenly, you're trying to make a complex decision in the midst of a very stressful event. It's really important to have the tools and questions in mind to think through this difficult and personal decision. Below is a list of questions that can help clarify your own values and beliefs:

1. Consider Staying at Home

Most seniors will tell you that their first choice is to stay at home. They're comfortable in their spaces. They have many memories and it feels safe, even if in reality it isn't what it used to be. To give up their home feels like they are giving up a large part of who they are. It can be a difficult conversation, but I've found that you need to act as a sounding board to help your parents think through their realistic needs and assess what's feasible.

• What level of care is required?
• Is non-medical assistance needed (such as shopping, cooking, paying bills and the like)?
• Do they need help ensuring that medications are not forgotten?
• Is help required with activities of daily living?
• How many hours a day is the care required?
• How much will it cost? Will paying these costs reduce or eliminate other choices later on?
• Is reliable help available?
• Are you able to check that the hired help is not abusing your parent?
• Is the home safe for an older adult? If not, can it be modified to be safe?
• Are railings available for the full length of all staircases?
• Are supports available in the shower or tub?
• Are there gas appliances that must be lit?
• Is there a way to summon help if the parent falls and is unable to move?
• How often will you personally be able to visit?
• What are the demands on your time due to work and other family obligations? (For example, would you be taking time away from other family members or your job to spend hours traveling each weekend to visit?)

2. Consider Moving Senior into Your Home

• Can your parent be left alone and for how long?
• What changes will need to be made to your home to make it safe for a senior?
• Who else lives in your home and how will they be impacted? (e.g. Are there children living at home? How old are they?)
• What will you do if the person becomes ill or simply needs to go to the doctor?
• Are you and your spouse in COMPLETE agreement?
• Are you also in agreement on sharing the responsibilities?
• Have you researched what the role of caregiver can mean in your life? There are lots of resources online that can help connect you with other caregivers and deal with the inevitable stress (and also share its benefits).
• How do you feel about having part-time help come into your home?
• Have you investigated the options for senior daycare?
• What are the options if you want to go away for a weekend?

3. Consider Moving Senior into a Care Facility

• Are the financial resources available for this option?
• How far away is the facility from you? Should you relocate the senior, geographically, so that you can more easily visit?
• Are you prepared for enormous initial resistance? This is a big change for a senior.
• Have you thoroughly researched what's available?
• Have you thought about the possible need to move among facilities with differing levels of care? (For example, eventually a parent might need to move from assisted living to a nursing home).
• If funds are available, but limited, have you learned how the facilities address Medicaid?
• Will the facility accept a client coming in on Medicaid or will they demand an initial paid period? Facilities are becoming increasingly inventive about ways to finance the cost of care. Care costs money. Include this fact in your planning. Ask, don't assume.
• Don't assume that government funded facilities will be horrible (or that private facilities will be wonderful). Visit them and decide for yourself.

There can be advantages and disadvantages to all three of the options, depending on the situations of both you and and your parent. Taking the time to prepare and educate yourself now can make it a lot easier to deal with that dreaded phone call, should it ever come. You'll be glad you did.


http://seniorcare.homeinstead.com/long-term-care-options/

Burbank police warn elderly residents of roof leak scam

Burbank police are warning residents to beware of anyone attempting to enter their homes under the false pretense of repairing a roof leak.

A 64-year-old woman was home alone at her house on 1500 block of North Niagara Street when a man knocked on her door.

The unshaven man, who she described as between the ages of 40 and 45 with “dirty teeth,” attempted to con his way into her home to fix a roof leak.

According to the police report, the 5 feet 6 inch tall man told the resident that her leak was spilling onto the neighbor’s property. When she refused to let him into her home, he walked away from her property.

The resident further described the suspect as Caucasian , with a thin build and short, dirty hair. He was wearing a blue shirt.

A similar scam occurred on Feb. 18 a little more than a mile away on 2200 block of North Valley Street.

In February, a Caucasian man intimidated an 84-year-old victim into letting him into his home under the ruse of wanting money for roof work.

The man alleges that after he let the suspect into his home, he gave him money and was then ordered to sit on the couch. A woman entered the home soon after to watch the victim while the man rummaged through his home.

After allegedly sifting through the man’s dresser, cabinets and closets, both suspects left through the front door of the home and fled in what the victim described as a newer white vehicle. The victim told police the vehicle was a sporty-looking 2-door hatchback with a chrome roof rack.

The male suspect n this case between 30 and 40 years old, 6 feet tall, and approximately 220 pounds. He had short black hair and was balding with a beard, mustache and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a black and white striped sweatshirt with jeans.

The woman was also Caucasian, approximately 30 years old, 5 feet 1 inch tall and 120 pounds. She had collar length dirty blonde hair and blues and was wearing a white V-neck shirt and jeans.

Residents are asked to call the Burbank Police Department at (818) 238-3200 if they are not sure as to a person’s visit.

http://the818now.com/burbank-police-warn-elderly-residents-of-roof-leak-scam/

Is America Failing Our Nation's Seniors?

In 2008, the Meals On Wheels Association of America released the results of a groundbreaking research report entitled "The Causes, Consequences and Future of Senior Hunger in America" that our Foundation had commissioned. The findings of the co-principal investigators, Dr. James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky and Dr. Craig Gundersen then of the University of Iowa, were shocking and unacceptable. In 2001, the research showed, five million seniors in the United States, or one in nine, were facing the threat of hunger. The next year, we asked the same researcher examine several more years of date and update the report. By 2007, the number of seniors facing the threat of hunger was six million. Any reader who can do the math knows that is a 20 percent increase in just six years. But without context, the average reader might not be able to grasp the magnitude of the number. Let me give some context. There are 33 states in this country that each have total state populations of less than 6 million.

Is America failing our nation's seniors? And if we are moving in the clearly wrong direction where senior hunger is concerned today, what of the future?

The baby boomers (and I am one of them) are now entering the ranks of older persons, and it is safe to assume that we will be a demanding lot, constantly in search of more and different kinds of services. We will not likely want to live in assisted living or the even less desirous nursing home environment as generations before us have. Rather, we will want to live independently in community settings. Yet that raises a critical question: Can community-based organizations and the concomitant services needed keep up with the demand? Or will America, having failed to turn the tide on senior hunger with the current generation continue down the path of failure with the next-- and much larger-- generation of our nation's seniors?

It is easy to focus on the short term view of the past, the last couple of decades that have seen a faltering economy that went from great highs to unparalleled, sustained lows and a burgeoning population of older adults, and to lay the blame here. But we have seen depression in the place of deep recession in the more distant past. And we have seen population surges like that of the last century, not driven by birth rates, but by immigrants who came to these shores seeking a better life. Many of those numbers of older persons, like my own grandparents who came into his vast, wonderful land of ours, this great melting pot, seeking the American dream. Even with its own troubles, America did not fail them.

But it is different for millions of older Americans today. At least 6 million in 2007; and while we do not have more current research to account for the impact of the economy of the past several years on seniors, one researcher has suggested that the real number of those facing hunger's real, ominous and daily threat might be 30 percent higher.

All the while, when the national attention, or should I say national debate, turns to seniors and senior issues, the discussion seems confined primarily to Social Security and Medicare - "their programs," those entitlements to which individuals who have paid into the system look for help to sustain them in their elder years. They regard their payments to the trust funds as investments, and they expect to reap some advantages from those investments. Fair enough. But because these programs are entitlements -- which means both that they guarantee some benefit and that they are costly to the budget to maintain (particularly as there are fewer and fewer young people paying into the system than in years past) -- they have become the rallying cry for those who say "look at what we do for seniors. What more do they want?"

Well, sometimes it's not about what they want, but what they need. Feeding the hungry is not a response to an optional want. It's a moral obligation... and food is certainly something to which every man, woman and child is entitled. Plainly put, it's not good enough any longer for Meals On Wheels to be viewed as a feel-good, do-good social service program. Surely local Meals On Wheels programs are that, and they are integral parts of the fabric of every community. That is why the data show us that 99 percent of the American public views these programs positively. But that's not enough. Our elected officials love these programs, and we are grateful for that. At least once a year they are pleased to do a photo-op delivering a meal. But is once a year enough?

When budget issues arise in Congress and the two parties are duking it out on the floor of the Congress, Meals On Wheels generally comes up. But is it good enough to use the story of cutting off meals to seniors and then fail to make adequate funds available to meet the need, so that in the end, after the partisan sparring is over, Meals On Wheels programs in fact have to reduce the number of meals or the number of seniors they serve?

So, I ask the question again. Is America failing our nation's seniors? And, what do we do about it? We, at Meals On Wheels programs throughout the United States, continue to deliver the best services and meals that we can. We are asked to perform two separate tasks. First is simply to feed those seniors who would otherwise go hungry. Second -- and this sets Meals On Wheels and our services apart -- is to ensure that those being fed receive food that is nutritious; that meets government guidelines for nutritional composition; that is maintained at proper temperatures, even if they are being transported forty or more miles along with other meal deliveries being made to other seniors waiting for their food; that is medically, ethnically, and religiously appropriate; and that tastes good too.

Is America failing our nation's seniors? The statistics would say the answer is yes. But are we failing our nation's seniors? No. We are Meals On Wheels, and Meals On Wheels programs are not failing our nation's seniors. Our programs are a lifeline and an anchor for the hundreds of thousands of seniors who need a helping hand. Yes, we can and we will end senior hunger and provide nutritious meals at the same time. We have the courage of our convictions and we will stand up against those who would seek to shut us out and shut us down. There simply is no other option.

Stand with us. In this the richest nation on Earth no one should go hungry. We must not fail our nation's seniors. Stand with us in this fight.

Huffington Post Report by Enid Borden

Report: Calif. Elderly Risk Hiring Private Caregivers With Criminal Records

California residents can unknowingly hire private caregivers who have criminal backgrounds,

according to a report by the state Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes, California Watch

reports  (Harris, California Watch, 4/22).

California and five other states do not regulate private in-home caregivers. Although the state screens workers providing care for enrollees in the In-Home Supportive Services program, the state lacks similar screening procedures for private providers (Van Oot, Sacramento Bee, 4/22).

Key Findings

For the report, investigators culled Craigslist ads for in-home care providers and found ads posted by individuals with felony convictions for methamphetamine trafficking and major theft.

According to the report, some of the agencies approved employees known to have criminal convictions. Among 64 recent criminal cases involving caregivers, 27% previously had been convicted of crimes, according to the report.

The report also found that there has been confusion over how to implement a 2008 state law (SB 692) that allows seniors and their families to conduct their own screenings through the Department of Justice (California Watch, 4/22).

The law specified that public officials who recruit and screen IHSS caregivers could provide assistance to private employers. However, the oversight office contacted 26 such agencies requesting help with background checks, and all 26 declined, according to the report (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 4/21).

Recommendations

Authors of the report offered several recommendations, including:

• Creating a registry to let clients find independent caregivers who were voluntarily screened (California Watch, 4/22);
• Passing a law that would let consumer agencies disclose caregiver convictions older than seven years; and
• Educating consumers on how to obtain and read a Department of Justice background check (Sacramento Business Journal, 4/21).

_________________________________________________________________________

This is why:

 HOME INSTEAD SENIOR CARE IS THE CHOICE FOR YOU OR YOUR LOVED ONES

Home Instead Senior Care is a network of independently owned and operated senior care franchises that stretches across North America and around the world. Each of these local offices employs professional staff members and caregivers who are responsive to your needs and engaged in your community. Each caregiver is bonded and insured, covered under worker's compensation, and cleared through and extensive, multi-year, multi-state background check.

Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2011/4/22/report-calif-elderly-risk-hiring-caregivers-with-criminal-records.aspx#ixzz1KGiqiceU