How Can a Geriatric Care Manager Help My Loved One?

Family care providers realize that navigating the process of finding appropriate care resources for a senior can seem like trying to traverse the ocean in a rowboat – blindfolded, and blindsided by the buffeting waves and winds. The prospect of arriving safely and securely to your destination is fairly slim without having the appropriate tools, and an individual to show you how to utilize them.

That is where a geriatric care manager (also referred to as an aging life care professional) can step up and save the day. Geriatric care managers are experts in the numerous intricacies of the aging process, available resources, resolution of issues related to family dynamics, and more.

Available for short-term consultations up through and including full-time assistance, there are several key instances when a geriatric care manager is particularly invaluable:

• Long distance separates you and your loved one. Living in Texas while your aging parents are in California, even with today’s technology, makes it challenging to make sure they’re properly looked after and safe. A geriatric care manager can offer supervision of care, frequent visitations, and help with decision-making.
• A complicated behavioral issue is at play. When an older adult is challenged by Alzheimer’s disease or another diagnosis that triggers behavioral concerns, a geriatric care manager may be an integral part of the older adult’s care team, providing information on appropriate specialists and helping to find a remedy to alleviate troubling behaviors, which can include aggression, wandering, or sundowning.
• The senior won’t open up about medical conditions. Older adults frequently want to protect their children from added worry, and as a result, withhold important health information – but in many cases are open to talking with a professional geriatric care manager about their worries.
• There are living condition concerns. For example, if a senior loved one lives in an assisted living community that will not permit you to hire a personal caregiver when additional assistance is required, a geriatric care manager can provide in-depth details about both the community itself and your state’s relevant laws, and will help mediate a resolution.
• You’re just at a loss. Figuring out the very best care solution for a loved one can certainly be challenging, and it’s common for loved ones to feel uncertain about what the most effective solution will be. A geriatric care manager can provide you with what your options are, and what the benefits and disadvantages can be for every single option.

If you are interested in locating a geriatric care manager to help enhance care for a senior loved one, connect with JFS Care to learn more about our Burbank elder care and the surrounding communities we serve,g at (213) 383-2273 or contact us online.