ELDERCARE MANAGEMENT

Geriatric care managers assist with eldercare matters, just as attorneys or accountants assist with legal or financial matters. Involving a care manager in planning and managing parent care can help parents attain their maximum functional potential; can secure their safety and wellbeing; and can reduce the emotional toll of parent care on family members.

A geriatric care manager is a health and human services specialist whose background may be in nursing, mental health, social work, or dementia care. She can provide a variety of direct services and can assemble and coordinate community-based services and the services of other professionals. Perhaps most importantly, a care manager where your parents live can help ensure that their needs are met; be on-call to handle emergencies; and keep you informed.

While there are no formal licensing requirements, members of National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (www.caremanager.org) meet strict certification guidelines. Not all geriatric care managers are members of NAPGCM.

A geriatric care manager is usually engaged and paid privately. An existing long term care insurance policy may pay for services of a care manager. Some employers, insurance companies, health plans and financial service providers are beginning to subsidize or cover care management services for their members and clients.

If you are unable to afford a private care manager, there are other options. Low-cost or no-cost geriatric care management can be available through a community agency, senior services organization or other non-profit agency; your local Area Agency on Aging can refer you to a city, county or agency resource.