Start planning for your parents’ future.
This year, Baby Boomers born in 1946 are turning 80 years old. For many, this is a major turning point as they find themselves moving farther away from independence and closer to needing supportive care. And often, their adult children are responsible for making key decisions and plans for their future. If you are in this situation, you may be wondering how to approach the process so you can best help your aging parents. Tracy Johnson, a registered nurse, is owner and founder of Buckhead-based Premier Care Management of Georgia, a leading geriatric care management group, and offers the following advice so everyone in your family can feel comfortable and prepared for the days and years to come.
How do I know when to step in and begin helping my parent make decisions?
You may begin to see things that don’t sit right with you. Maybe you see a scrape on your mom’s car, or you dad keeps forgetting to pay a certain bill. You could see that your parents don’t have food in their refrigerator. They may have had several falls and trips to the emergency room. Medically, this is what we call change of condition. There’s a change in what you see, and you may need to delve deeper into what’s going on.
Do I need to move my parent out of their home right away?
It’s such a big decision, and there’s no cookie cutter approach. You can turn to adult day programs if your parent wants to stay in their home but needs activity. You may be able to have a caregiver in the home short-term to help address some needs like bathing, grooming and dressing, as well as laundry or maintenance around the house. There are also private or agency-based live-in caregivers. And at some point, assisted living or memory care makes the most sense. There are phases to the process.
How do I begin making long-term plans?
Turning to an aging life care manager is an excellent option. That person can help you do a formal assessment, asking whether your parent has had any medicine errors, lost weight, missed doctor appointments, is showing cognitive issues and more. They can create a personalized plan for your parent’s long-term care with you and your siblings or other family members, making sure that everyone is on the same page about medical care, finances, insurance and legal issues. They can even step in and help advocate with doctors when necessary. It’s all about helping you project manage your parent’s care.
What decisions should my parent make as they begin to get older?
Every adult should have a power of attorney. It doesn’t even matter if you’re 65 or older; you need to have someone who can make decisions about your health care and finances if you are unable to do that.
My parent is getting older but doesn’t need care yet. What should I be doing now?
Start keeping notes. Get a three-ring binder or an app (like Caring Village) and record everything about their medical care, medicine lists, important tasks and more. Write things down about their doctor visits or trips to the hospital. We often forget the timeline of when things happen, so keeping a record is extremely important. Whatever you do, do it sooner rather than later. So much of what we see now deals with dementia, and you need to have plans in place before you can’t have that conversation with Mom or Dad.
PREMIER CARE MANAGEMENT OF GEORGIA
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