Caring for your aging parents is one of the responsibilities that go along with being of the sandwich generation. Making the right decision regarding the care of your aging parent s and relatives can sometimes be difficult and will always be emotional. There are steps that can make your life a bit easier, and theirs too.Talk to your Parents and find out about their wishes and expectations. You should discuss long-term care insurance, living arrangements, medical care, financial and estate planning.
Prepare a personal data record and collect all the information you would need if your parents were to become incapacitated or die. This information includes financial information, legal documents, medical information and accounts, insurance policies, and funeral and burial wishes or plans.
Get support and advice if you are concerned about your parent’s mental or physical capacities. You can ask their doctor for a geriatric assessment. Seek help from a geriatric manager if you can’t care for your parents yourself. Support groups, adult day care and caregiver training are available if you are their primary caregiver.
Explore long term care for your parents. It may seem like a long way off, but it’s just around the corner. Some families are able to bring aging parents into their own homes, but others are not. An alternative is to purchase long-term care insurance to help cover all or part of the costs for in-home care or assisted living facilities.
Housing Options should be considered when you are no longer able to care for your parents at home or the services of the paid in-home caregiver become inadequate.
Assisted living facilities usually offer rental rooms, housekeeping services, meals, social activities and transportation. The primary focus is social for these types of facilities and they are not equipped to provide medical care. They are often state-licensed and serve seniors who need more help than independent living communities can provide. The costs for these facilities vary.
Nursing Homes are always state-licensed facilities and offer 24 hour access to medical care at three levels. (Skilled nursing, intermediate care and custodial care) Payment options must be explored as nursing homes are expensive. Payment options to be considered are: use of personal savings, retirement plans, long-term care insurance and Medicaid.
Caring for your aging parents and ultimately making the decision on long term care will be difficult and emotional, but thorough research of options can help ease the stress associated with this process. Involving your parents in the decision making when possible can help with their acceptance of the change in living arrangement s and allow for a smoother transition.
2 comments:
My mother is 84 and, at the moment, is still able to care for herself. She is not ready for assisted living and, certainly, not for a nursing home. Lately, though, she's been telling me about several of her friends who have moved in with their daughters (never their sons!!). I don't know if she's hinting or what but, quite frankly, it's not an arrangement that would work. I'll take care of her, one way or another, but her moving in with us would make our lives very difficult on many levels. She's always said before that she wouldn't want to live with us -- but I wonder if she's beginning to worry about living alone.
Thank you for the excellent information about talking to your parents ahead of time and gathering all the information you need. My parents did that with me. At first it seemed like a terrible thing to discuss. But when health problems later occurred, I was so grateful we had made all the important decisions when we had the time to think about it and pray about it. Having to make those decisions in the middle of a crisis would have been so much more difficult.
I would also suggest making copies of living wills (how they want to handle medical decisions) and their power of attorney and giving those copies to each person who is named in them. Give a copy of the living will to each of their doctors as well, and keep one handy to take with you, along with that power of attorney, if you have to go to the hospital for any reason. Even if a health facility says they will pass the information on, many times that doesn't happen. In addition, the new laws can make it difficult for family members to get necessary information from the doctors if your parent is not able to give permission. Having both those documents with you should make things easier for you in a crisis situation.
Post a Comment