Senior Health | Elder Law

Independent Living Communities are Great for Active Seniors

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There comes a point in our live when for various reasons we need to move out of our home. Depending on how sick or how well we are, we might need to move into an assisted living facility or possibly a just a retirement community. Either way, it is best to be prepared mentally for the move as it can be tough to leave the home you have lived in for so long and love so much. If you start thinking about the move now, you can also get an idea of where you feel most comfortable and can even take the time to visit some facilities in person. This is a good idea so you can get an idea first hand of what it will be like to live there once you move.

For someone seeking a senior/elder care facility when they have little to know medical needs, then a retirement home will suffice. And just for your information, these days you should research the term independent living communities as many people are still more than able to do more than just sit around in a rocking chair. These facilities are great if you are still an active senior. One of the benefits that it offers is that you can keep from being lonely and meet new people that are your age. This is often tough as we age because many of our friends are passing away. Another benefit is that meals are often provided and you no longer have to cook if you do not want to. They have busy social calendar full of activities and entertainment options as well. Some of the newer facilities have apartments that are built for couples also. You can sell your home and not worry about mainting it anymore. Plus, if you do have minor medical needs, those can be catered to as well.

Filed Under: General, Lifestyle Tagged With: Assisted living, Health, Independent living, Nursing home, Retirement, Retirement community, Retirement home, Senior Health

What do I do when my Mom gets Alzheimer’s?

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There comes a time in most people’s lives when an aging parent will become ill and require some kind of care. In nearly all cases this is a difficult time with difficult decisions that need to be made and issues that need to be addressed.

The level of independence is an important point. Often there are other options other than a residential homes for the elderly such as temporary care or getting someone in daily while you are at work, to take care of the elderly in their own home. One needs to consider the disease and how it is likely to progress when making long term plans.

If the patient is relative well now, but as in Alzheimer‘s, the condition is going to worsen to the point that the family member cannot safely take care of them or that the impact on the rest of the family will be detrimental, then it is wise to consider other long term arrangements.

Family should never feel guilty or that they are abandoning their parents. Retirement residences are designed for the elderly and a good one is not a “dumping zone” for unwanted parents. Rather, it shows the extent of love and concern felt for the elderly and the need to get them safe care in an environment that they will feel comfortable in.

The most important thing is that your visit the patient as often as possible and let them feel as loved as possible. Bring them little gifts, remember birthdays and dates that are important to the patient. Keep them updated with events happening on the outside world and arrange for “field trips” if their condition allows it.

Placing your loved ones in a residential home is not meant to be a jail sentence where they are dumped and forgotten. It is a facility that will take care of your parents while you take care of your family. Keeping in touch with them and visiting often is time consuming and sometimes may be inconvenient, but it is essential if you wish to make sure that your elderly parent is to feel loved and wanted and content.

Filed Under: General, Guardianship Tagged With: Alzheimer's disease, Assisted living, Elderly care, Health, Home care, Old age, Parent, Senior Health

The Right to Discontent

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There is an old saying that if you do not vote, you do not have a right to complain. Unfortunately, while this is the right idea from an idealistic political mind set, it does not apply in many different occasions. For one thing, in the life of a geriatric individual, there is not always much of a capability to complain. As a person’s health suffers with advanced age, their ability to communicate properly may also begin to wane. So having a “vote” of sorts can be extremely unlikely, for the reason that the geriatric individual may simply not have a sufficient level of communications ability to properly voice their opinions. But nonetheless, there is always the right to voicing a complaint to the best of one’s personal ability. Every person has the right to be treated reasonably well, and if there is ever a breach in the quality of their care they also have the right to complain about it.

Unfortunately, there is often some level of resistance from the elderly individual’s care taker. Whether it be because of a matter of pride, or out of some sort of malicious interest, the most neglectful (or in some cases even actively abusive) individuals charged with the care of an elderly person have the greatest tendency toward wanting to keep things secret. As is usually the case with corrupt individuals, they want to deal with everything themselves, instead of involving the help of anyone else who may undermine their self perceived authority. Typically, they just enjoy having power in a given situation.

And like pretty much all people who have some sort of power, they are highly reluctant to “surrender” it to anyone else. And while there is nothing inherently weak about allowing the elderly person to inform others of an issue with their care, there is an underlying insecurity to the kind of person who would neglect and or abuse a geriatric person. This insecurity has a disturbing tendency to lead to there being a cone of silence surrounding the geriatric individual’s care. We all have a right to complain about problems.

Filed Under: Elder Law Tagged With: Elderly care, Geriatrics, Health, Home care, Home Health, Medicine, Old age, Senior Health

CARIE – Elderly Rights Advocates

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The Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, known as CARIE for short, devotes itself to improving the quality of life for older people. It is a non-profit group that does not provide services to elderly people but instead uses education, action, and advocacy to improve the rights, well being, and autonomy of elderly people. The center is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but can provide assistance to older people all over the country, helping them receive the care, services, and the dignity they deserve.

CARIE provides community education programs, professional training services, individual counseling and problem solving services, and other various activities and resources for the elderly and caretakers of the elderly. CARIE works with policy-makers, health care workers, and the general public, to create improvement in the way elderly people are treated and cared for. The center is there not only to improve the quality of life and the treatment of older people, but wants to help elderly caretakers provide quality care and services to older people.

The center was founded in 1977 as a project of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. The U.S. Department of Public Health and Human Services funded the group’s activities until CARIE was incorporated in 1979 as a 501(c)(3) organization. At that time it was financially supported as a VISTA volunteer project. CARIE is responsible for the service mediation approach. This process involves having an agency staff member intervene at crisis points to help elderly caregivers understand and pursue the best options that are available for elderly care, and can also help boost the family’s ability to handle and deal with the issues they are encountering.

CARIE’s success is shown in the multiple awards and acknowledgments received, including two Community Health Impact Awards, an IMPACT award, and the Governor’s Silver and Gold Award for Enhancing the Image of Older Persons. In 2004, CARIE was labeled as “Community Champion” for the elderly with a unanimous vote. The American Society on Aging and the Brookdale Center on Aging honored CARIE with a Best Practices Award for their professional training curriculum.

Filed Under: Elder Law, Law Tagged With: Education, Health, Health care, Old age, People, Senior Health, Seniors, United States

Traits of a Great Trustee

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If you are well versed in what you need to do as you grow older, you are no doubt well aware that you should have a living will. Articles that tell you as much are no doubt preaching to the choir, because you are the type of person who plans ahead for undesirable situations. But one area where a lot of people get tripped up is in the selection of a proper trustee, who will handle things in their stead if something dire incapacitates them temporarily. Hopefully, you will survive to live many healthy years thereafter. But in the short term, there are the same responsibilities in your life as there always were. And this is the person who is going to make sure that those responsibilities are all fulfilled, without issue.

This person has got to be trustworthy. You can not have a shady type running things in your stead, or you will wake up to find that your estate is in shambles. Never under estimate how much damage a motivated addict or scam artist can do, or how quickly they can do so. If most of the person’s existing money goes to drugs, alcohol and gambling, do not appoint them as your trustee. You did not work your entire life time so that they could party away everything you have built, did you? This should go without saying, but it can be a neglected fact, just because a person is family.

This person has to be both logistically and legally capable of taking care of things. While you may have a 15-year-old grand son that you would literally trust with your life, his age makes him unable to tend to most aspects of your living will and your care. And while you may have a perfect friend who lives in another country, their distance will make caring for the little things in your life all but impossible. If they can not pop over to mow the lawn, check your mail and such every so often, they simply can not be your trustee. You just have to choose carefully.

Filed Under: Elder Law, Law Tagged With: Assisted living, Bankruptcy, Board of directors, Health, Law, Senior Health, Trustee, United States

The Living Will: not Optional

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In this day and age, nearly everybody knows that it is important to have a will. After all, your will is a pretty literal document. It is a little piece of paper that explains, in so many words, what your will is for the disbursal of what you own after your death. It also has a great deal of influence as far as the care of any dependents you may have. If you have adult children with disabilities for whom you have been caring, your will is a critical document for detailing their care, as well. But believe it or not, there are a lot of people who have no idea that your living will is just as important as your standard will. While these two documents can be one and the same, far too many people assume that they will simply die some day. In many cases, the situation is far more complicated than that.

If you are ever stricken with an illness that does not immediately take your life, you will need to have a living will in place for several reasons. For one, it will detail how you want your finances to be handled in your (perhaps temporary) absence. For another, it will talk about how much work you want to have done in resuscitating you if you should fall into a coma or become otherwise seriously incapacitated. While we all hope that situations of this nature will not befall us, not being prepared for such a situation will do nothing to stop its possibility.

If you do not currently have a living portion to your will, now is the best time to make an appointment with your attorney and get this knocked out. You will never have a better time than the present to take care of an issue of this nature. As sad and fatalistic as it is, every day that you spend thinking that this will never happen to you is a day in which it very well might. And while you can ignore the problem, a living will is your best real defense.

Filed Under: Elder Law, Law Tagged With: Advance health care directive, Assisted living, Child, Death, Facilities, Health, Senior Health, United States