Sunday, September 01, 2013

Geriatric Care Managers: The Eyes and Ears For Caring Children Who Live Afar


Sonja W. Kobrin, M.P.S.  Geriatric Care Manager
V.I.P. Care Management, Inc.
Lantana, Florida 561-588-5151

If your elderly parents live far away, who will be your eyes and ears? Who will educate you about the confusing elder care system? Younger folks have never had to learn about Medicaid, Medicare, Veteran Benefits and Long Term Care Insurance. Most are unaware of the hidden politics of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, insurance providers and home health care companies which bias them when they offer you options and solutions for your elderly parents.

Every professional seems to have an opinion about what is best, but sometimes these opinions conflict. The doctor wants to send the patient home. The hospital social worker is arranging for nursing home or assisted living facilities to do an assessment for facility placement or rehabilitation. Your parents may be rejecting the idea of hiring a home health aide. Who will be your parents’ unbiased advocate? Even if concerned children rush to their parents’ hospital bedside, how will you know all of the options and most importantly, what these options will cost?  Geriatric Care Managers are professional elder care consultants hired by families to represent their interests and only their interests. A legitimate Geriatric Care Manager takes no referral fees from any company or facility to whom they make a referral. Care Managers are paid by the patient or family to guide the family through the elder care system and to make sure the patient’s needs are met. It is best to hire a care manager who does not own a Home Health Company or Assisted Living so you can easily make changes if you are unhappy with those services.

It is common today for people in the northern states to retire in resort areas like Florida and Arizona, leaving their adult children behind. The problem comes ten to twenty years later. The now aged parents have needs, but their children are living far away. The first time the kids hop a plane to respond to a family emergency, it is no problem. When the problems escalate and that child is now taking significant time away from work and family to assist their parents, the situation becomes critical. As a Care Manager I have met many couples whose marriages and bank accounts are strained by caregiver duties.

Most caregivers are unaware of financial programs which may help offset expensive health care costs. When costly services are needed, families need to know what to expect. Seniors who lived through the Great Depression sometimes distrust their children when it comes to financial and medical decision making. They may feel money is a private matter or have negative opinions about the way their children have spent money in the past. Either way, the concerned children may be dismayed to find that their parents will listen to the advice of a stranger rather than the advice of their own family. Care Managers can be that “concerned outsider” whose expert advice will be heeded. Once the situation is professionally assessed and the solutions put in place, the adult children living afar can work together with the local Care Manager as a partner in their parent’s care.