Unprepared Families Can Get Help from an Elder Care Specialist

Unprepared Families Can Get Help from an Elder Care Specialist

A recent article from USA Today reveals that many families are unprepared to care for their elder parents. While a lot of them are aware of the risks and health problems that come with old age, the fact that these family members either live miles away from their parents, have full time jobs, and other preoccupations just hinder them from being equipped and all set to be family caregivers. When this is the scenario, hiring an elder care specialist makes good sense and becomes a smart decision. Having a skilled professional to help them make good choices among various care options and to provide the appropriate needed care, there will be lesser worries on their part.

In a 2009 survey by the AARP, it showed that more than 42 million Americans are serving as family caregivers for their adults. They are the ones providing assistance to their activities of daily living (ADLs) such as personal hygiene and grooming, dressing and undressing, feeding, functional transfers, and toileting. An additional 61.6 million was also recorded to have performed at least some form of care during the year. Similarly, the survey stressed that these members are actually unaware, unqualified, and untrained on proper senior care.


There is quite a lot of things to know and understand in senior care. For those who do not have the time to go through this or not have the proper resources to use as guide, then they can expect having difficulties in finding the right type of care and the right place for care for their elders. Senior care experts can provide the help that families need in order to properly organize and manage their adults' geriatric care. Listed below are some of the aspects of care management wherein they can be of great help:

Paperworks

A lot of the seniors do not have an advance care directive wherein they can legally allow someone, most of the time their spouses or children through a power of attorney to make the necessary decisions about their care, specifically the financial decisions. Additionally, there are other documents like a health care proxy wherein the legal authority is provided for decisions on medical treatment and such thing as a living will that usually contains directives on end-of-life care. Most families have a hard time understanding and executing these. Calling an somekeyword, elder-law attorney and a financial planner can help them go through all the confusion.

The Long Term Care System

As mentioned, there are various care options that families can probe on. But choosing is not really easy specially if they are bounded by financial limits or the fact that Medicare cannot cover their parent's condition. Having someone to assist them in steering through the long term care system can greatly help them in identifying whether nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or home care givers can be the perfect choice. More importantly, families can also easily determine their ability to pay for these services if they have an elder care specialist that can explain the median costs of these care settings.