A Common Family Crisis.  Consider the following situation:  Your mom has recently begun to suffer the effects of dementia, stroke or other incapacitating illness. You have a spouse and full-time job and are raising children of your own, but you try to help out as much as you can. You would like to keep mom at home, but you are burdened with the following questions:

1. Should Mom stay at home?
2. Who will care for her if she does?
3. If Mom leaves the home, where should she go? What facility accepts patients with her disability?
4. Does Mom have enough money to live at home? How can she afford long-term care? Is public assistance available?
5. Does Mom have adequate financial and medical powers of attorney to allow you to make all necessary decisions?
6. What can you do NOW to plan for the future and to ensure that Mom’s quality of life will continue to be the best it can be, throughout her lifetime?

A “Life Care Plan” can lift these burdens and solve these legal and healthcare problems, and a qualified Care Manager can help implement the legal solutions and provide on-going assistance to the family to assure the highest future quality of life.

The Life Care Plan is a roadmap for achieving long-term financial security and healthcare, and includes the legal documents and protections to safeguard assets and care for loved ones.  A Life Care Plan can include: a comprehensive review of all assets and ownership, along with pertinent family relationships and dynamics; preparation of financial and healthcare powers of attorney and instructions for substitute decision-making if the client becomes incapacitated; appropriate wills and trusts to control disposition of assets within the family, based on the client’s goals; preparation and filing of Medicaid application for long-term care, including steps to save assets where possible; planning for eligibility for veterans’ benefits for a veteran or widowed spouse; and ongoing monitoring for a sufficient period to assist family members with caregiving responsibilities.  With a Life Care Plan, the legal and care management professionals continue to support and help you as the Plan evolves to accommodate needs and changes in your care situation.

A Care Manager is compassionate, knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with crisis situations, and empathetic to the emotional needs of the older person and the caregivers.  Your Care Manager is knowledgeable about the many services and resources available to the elder and disability community and will assist with the identification and selection of appropriate home care and other services, intervene when special care situations arise, offer assisted living and nursing home options, act as a liaison, and more.  A Care Manager should be a Professional Geriatric Care Manager (PGCM) and member of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (www.caremanager.org) to assure a level of competence and experience related to aging and elder care issues.

For more information or help with a Life Care Plan and care management in Mississippi, contact Richard A. Courtney, CELA, toll-free at 866-ELDERLAW or on the web at www.ElderLawMS.com.