If you are caring for elderly loved ones the way you saw others in your family handle the responsibilities, you may not be aware that working with an elder care coordinator in a Life Care Planning Law Firm like Takacs McGinnis Elder Care Law can make the process much easier.
How does an elder care coordinator help? We posed this question to Pati Bedwell, one of the elder care coordinators at Takacs McGinnis Elder Care Law. Pati says that elder care coordinators provide value in three important ways.
Elder care coordinators help you get more for your money.
Most people know that elder law attorneys help people find ways to pay for long-term care while protecting assets to the greatest extent possible. When an elder care coordinator is working in partnership with an elder law attorney the way they do in a Life Care Planning Law Firm, the family benefits financially. “Elder law without care is really an incomplete solution for families,” Pati said. “When you work with an elder care coordinator, you get help figuring out what your loved one really needs, and you can find the right resources more quickly because the elder care coordinator is guiding you. Elder care coordinators know who all the best providers are in your area, which saves you time, expense, and aggravation.”
Elder care coordinators shorten the learning curve.
When you work with an elder care coordinator in a Life Care Planning Law Firm, you get help with the tasks that our culture expects someone in the family to handle. “Almost no one who lands in a caregiver role knows what they are doing,” Pati explained. “The family caregiver takes time away from work, away from self-care, away from their life to figure things out. They end up getting the equivalent of a Ph.D. in elder care. The whole process is incredibly stressful, and it can take years off your life. When you work with an elder care coordinator, you don’t have to learn by trial and error. You have a coach and a guide.”
Elder care coordinators provide expert guidance during care transitions.
When you’re caring for an elderly loved one whose health is in decline, each loss in health and function presents a fresh new set decisions to be made. Unfortunately, many family caregivers take the “we will cross that bridge when we come to it” approach. The consequences can be devastating for the primary caregiver. “Let’s say your mom’s health is declining and she reaches the point where she can’t live at home anymore,” said Pati. “What do you do now? If you’re the primary caregiver, you end up scrambling to make last-minute arrangements, putting your entire life on hold in the process.”
Pati says that these transitions happen in a predictable way and it’s possible to plan ahead for them. “An elder care coordinator can help you figure out what your options are, and the attorneys and public benefits specialists in the firm can help you figure out how to pay for the care your mom needs, well in advance of when she needs it,” Pati added. “You completely avoid the scrambling, you have more and better options, and you increase the chances that your mom can grow old in the home she knows and loves.”
For more information about elder care coordination and Life Care Planning, give our office a call at 615.824.2571.