Life Care Planning Offers Our Clients Solutions to the Long-Term Care Maze
By Martha C. Brown, J.D.
A Life Care Plan offers answers to some of the challenging questions faced by caregivers:
“My wife has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, what kind of care will she need? How will we be able to pay for her care?”
“My father is in a nursing home. Medicare said they won’t pay for his care anymore but he is too sick to come home…what do I do?”
“My mother doesn’t want to leave the house since my father died. She is becoming more isolated and confused. What are our options?”
A Life Care Plan is a customized roadmap for our clients which include:
- Legal services to protect and preserve assets from the high cost of long-term care
- Financial assistance to identify all possible sources of payment for long-term care
- Advocacy to help your loved one access and receive the highest quality of care
- Elder Care management to provide support and information about options which facilitate good decision-making
We guide our clients to help them to achieve their long-term care goals, from finding, accessing and paying for good long-term care, to preserving their assets for future generations.
See how Life Care Planning worked for one client. Myrtle Michaels is an 88 year old widowed woman. She has been living in her own home and managing fairly well, even though she was experiencing memory loss. Myrtle fell last week and broke her arm. During the hospitalization, complications set in and she became weak and disoriented. The hospital social worker told Myrtle and her daughter that she would not be able to manage safely at home without assistance. Myrtle is now facing an extended stay in a skilled nursing facility. Myrtle and her daughter were concerned. Where would she go? How would she be cared for? Did she need to go to a nursing home or rehabilitation center? The questions seemed endless and there did not seem to be time to find the answers. How could they manage these decisions?
Ever since the fall, Myrtle’s daughter realized that her mother had not had her legal paperwork reviewed in over 5 years. She thought her mother’s power of attorney was still her now deceased father, but she could not be sure. The hospital staff kept asking about a healthcare directive and she knew for certain that her mother did not have one. She and her mother thought she had a living will…but was that the same thing? These are the questions and concerns that Myrtle and her daughter faced when they came to our office.
In the meeting with Brigid Fernandez, an attorney and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Myrtle and her daughter described Myrtle’s goal of staying in her own home as long as possible. She feared losing her independence if she had to go to a nursing home. She was willing to accept help at home if it meant that she could continue safely at home. Myrtle needed to have her estate planning documents updated. Her deceased husband was still listed on all of her estate planning documents. Myrtle wanted her daughter to be able to assist her with paying her bills and making healthcare decisions. Myrtle wanted to discuss strategies for preserving her wealth for her children and grandchildren. A customized legal plan was developed that will serve as Myrtle‘s roadmap for her long-term care needs. Myrtle and her daughter were on their way to getting these questions answered. Working with Brigid to develop a customized plan, they were able to provide a roadmap that allowed Myrtle to be able to meet her goals of regaining her strength in the comfort of her home with assistance of a combination of family caregivers and paid personal care attendants. Myrtle qualified for the Aid and Attendance benefit through the Veterans Administration and the additional $1,056 per month helped to defray the cost of the caregivers. A Life Care Plan considers all possible sources of payment for long-term care.
Myrtle’s fall sparked her journey through the continuum of care. Because our approach at Oelbaum, Brown & Alsop is an elder-centered approach, we begin our long-term care planning by identifying where our clients are on their life’s journey. We consider their current living situation, their ability to manage their activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing, dressing and toileting. We identify what family and non-family support is available to our clients. We discuss our client’s goals and how we can help them to achieve those goals.
Myrtle’s independence was beginning to decline as she had to rely on others for assistance with her personal care. With the guidance of the Life Care Plan and the services of the elder care manager, Myrtle and her daughter confronted these concerns, sought assistance and found solutions to her long-term care problems. Myrtle was able to find the right care, at the right time to allow her to maintain her independence. Myrtle’s life care plan provided for ongoing elder care management. Brigid, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker was there to offer support, assistance and information as Myrtle’s needs changed. Myrtle Michaels and her daughter are not alone. Our clients want solutions for finding, accessing and paying for good long-term care.
Life Care Planning is a merger of the legal and non-legal worlds. It consists of legal planning techniques, evaluation, education and monitoring of physical, psychological and financial concerns of our clients now and in the future. The comprehensive legal plan becomes a road map to guide our clients and to assist them in handling the challenges that comes with aging and caring for an aging family member. The goals of a Life Care Plan are to promote the elder’s health, safety and well-being, to assist with healthcare and long-term care decision-making, to preserve assets from the high cost of long-term care, to attain eligibility for government benefit programs and to assist the elder in meeting their goals. A Life Care Plan provides our clients with solutions and family members with peace of mind.