Life Care Planning

When it begins to get more difficult to take care of Mom and Dad if the children live close by they will begin to pitch in and help to do such things as shopping, cooking, cleaning and paying bills. At this point in time when you should consider getting a Life Care Plan.

A Life Care Plan is an Action Plan that sets forth what we are going to do to keep Mom safe and independent at home. Our Elder Care Coordinator who is a licensed social worker will come to Mom’s home to meet with Mom and the children, spouse or caregiver. This is a free consultation where our Elder Care Coordinator will get to meet and visit with everyone who is going to be involved in taking care of Mom and helping her make decisions. Our Elder Care Coordinator will explain the details of a Life Care Plan and what she thinks can be accomplished with a Life Care Plan. If Mom and the kids want to proceed, our Elder Care Coordinator will schedule another visit to perform a formal life needs assessment to determine Mom’s abilities and needs and what Mom and children want to achieve. Our Elder Care Coordinator will take that assessment and prepare an Action Plan with a number of recommendations of what needs to be done to meet all of Mom’s needs at home and what needs to be done to keep Mom happy, safe and independent at home.

When a child or spouse notices that they are having to do more and more to take care of Mom and feels they need a little help or may feel they don’t know what needs to be done. All they know is something needs to be done. This is often more acute when the child lives out of town and cannot come over when Mom calls and needs something but the child just doesn’t know what to do or how to handle the situation. This is a good time to get more information about a Life Care Plan. Our Elder Care Coordinator will be glad come to Mom’s home and meet with you and Mom to do a free consultation to assess the situation and give some practical advice. You may call and request a free DVD and literature on the Life Care Plan which we will gladly send you.

Two sisters came to my office because Mom was in the Nursing Home recuperating from a broken foot. They felt they were not going to be able to physically take care of Mom themselves and needed some help. They got a Life Care Plan. Our Elder Care Coordinator came to Mom’s home as the sisters where getting the home ready for Mom’s return. As our Elder Care Coordinator was walking around looking for trip hazards which needed to be addressed she told the two sisters that the corner of the bedspread needed to be tucked under the bed because Mom might fall on it when she returned home. The two sisters looked at each other sheepishly and said that’s exactly where Mom had fallen and broken her foot which was the reason she had to go to the hospital and was now in the nursing home for the last month. What if we had done a Life Care Plan just a month earlier? Maybe Mom wouldn’t have tripped on the bedspread and maybe Mom wouldn’t have broken her foot and ultimately ended up in a nursing. Get a Life Care Plan before you think you really need it.

More than once, Mom had gotten lost on the way back from the grocery store and the police had to help her find her way back home. She also would take walks in her neighborhood and couldn’t find her way back home without the help of kind neighbors. Someone, we don’t know who, maybe a neighbor or a relative called Adult Protective Services because they felt this lady might need some help or be in danger. Adult Protective Services came out to investigate and visited with Mom and saw no immediate danger but were going to continue their investigation. The daughter came in and explained all this and I told her she needs a Life Care Plan immediately which she did. The day after the Action Plan was completed by our Elder Care Coordinator, Adult Protective Services came back to Mom’s house accompanied by a local policeman. They were ready to place Mom in the back of the police car and take Mom to transitional care (hospital) and ultimately on to the nursing home where she would probably spend the rest of her life. The daughter was there when Adult Protective Services and the Police arrived and she called our Elder Care Coordinator who came over immediately. Our Elder Care Coordinator spoke with Adult Protective Services and showed them the Action Plan. Adult Protective Services was satisfied that a plan was in place to keep Mom safe at home. Mom was in her 80’s and had not been to a doctor in over 12 years. The only thing Adult Protective Services required was for Mom to go to either five different types of doctors for routine tests or to transitional care (hospital) for a couple of days to get the same routine tests. The daughter explained to our Elder Care Coordinator that she had tried to get Mom to go the doctor for years and she had continually refused. Within 30 minutes our Elder Care Coordinator had convinced Mom to go to transitional care(hospital) where the tests were done. Two days later the doctor came out and told the daughter and our Elder Care Coordinator that Mom needed 24 hour care and recommended a nursing home. Our Elder Care Coordinator showed the Doctor the Action Plan and with that the Doctor allowed Mom to return home. As a result the daughter (who still had a full time job) moved in with Mom. To take care of Mom during the day our Elder Care Coordinator set up transportation to and from the Senior Citizens Center each day and a sitter for a couple of hours in the afternoon till the daughter returned from work. This has allowed Mom to continue to stay at home and live a safe and happy life at home. The daughter told us that without the Life Care Plan and the help of our Elder Care Coordinator Mom would have been in the nursing home and she would have been helpless to prevent that.