SH*T YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW (about your elder)
GENERAL DEATH & ELDER EDUCATION
new york times: elder care (articles)
Current articles on elder care topics.
CAREGIVER CATEGORIES
cake: what is a caregiver? (article)
“Caregivers are the bedrock of healthcare for families. Without caregivers, society wouldn’t be able to provide for the needs of seniors, people with disabilities, or other people who need temporary or permanent help to be able to recover and live lives to the best of their ability.”
aging in place: a guide to caring for elderly parents (site)
“Aging is a fact of life and it affects all families. As adult children, when imagining our parents as seniors, we may not fully comprehend the extent to which their aging will affect them or how it will affect us. Indeed, if they are already seniors and still in good health and living independently we may not feel any dramatic changes or concerns. However, the time does come when effects of aging become more evident and long-term care may be needed.”
cake: 7 tips for being the best long-distance caregiver (article)
“If you are currently a long-distance caregiver, or about to become one, you know the anxiety that comes from being apart from your loved one. Being a caregiver is a lot about prioritizing what needs to get done and how you can best help your loved one to live their life. Switching from being there every day to even something like once a week means giving up a lot of control.”
new york times: how to be a caregiver (article)
“Even if you're not a caregiver now, odds are that you will find yourself in the role someday. In the United States about one in five adults is providing unpaid health or supportive care to someone they love — an aging parent, a family member or child with a disability or a spouse, partner or friend with an illness. We asked experts on caregiving and aging, as well as dozens of people who have been caregivers themselves, for their best advice to help the next generation of caregivers.”
working daughter: a guide to caring for your aging parents while making a living (book)
“Working Daughter is a revelatory look at who's caring for our aging population and how these unpaid family caregivers are trying to manage caring for their parents, raising their children, maintaining relationships, and pursuing their careers. It follows the author, who was enjoying a fast-paced career in marketing and raising two children when both of her parents were diagnosed with terminal illnesses on the same day. In the challenges she faced and the choices she made, readers will learn how they can navigate their own caregiving experiences and prepare for when they are inevitably called on to care for their parents.”
As quoted in this Vox article: “Unpaid caregivers told me that part of their frustration and exhaustion stems from their sustained invisibility. Liz O’Donnell … said that in the Facebook group she runs for unpaid caregivers, one recurrent frustration is that the press is filled with articles about how hard it is to parent during Covid-19 — which is important — but there is very, very little about the challenges of caring for adults in isolation, especially while trying to work.”
ELDER CARE CATEGORIES
seniorcare.org (site)
“Elder care, often referred to as senior care, is specialized care that is designed to meet the needs and requirements of senior citizens at various stages. As such, elder care is a rather broad term, as it encompasses everything from assisted living and nursing care to adult day care, home care, and even hospice care. Although aging in itself is not a reason to consider elder care, it is usually the various diseases and physical limitations that accompany old age that prompt a discussion about elder care.”
caring.com: a guide to aging in place (article)
“While studies show that most people prefer to remain in their homes as they age, in reality this works best when the person, the place and the support network are all in place. Aging in place is a good choice if the person has made preparations, the home is safe and accessible, and there is a good support network in place. All of these things can be greatly enhanced by early planning (which we’ll cover in more detail on this page).”
a place for mom (site)
“Does your loved one need care urgently? Our Senior Living Advisors have expertise in hospital or rehab facility discharge and dementia and Alzheimer's care.”
CR: elder care and assisted living: who will care for you? (article)
“Consumer Reports helps you find a residence that will keep you or a loved one safe and happy, at a price you can afford.”
cake: what is assisted living? services, costs, and admissions explained (article)
“With age, certain things become trickier no matter how healthy you are. Especially as elder members of society, senior citizens that need some extra help to get through day-to-day chores but also want to be independent may get frustrated. The choice to move to an assisted living facility requires a lot of sensitivity and compassion, and is largely a family one.”
cake: guide to the nursing home process - 6 steps to know (article)
“Choosing to go to a nursing home full-time is a difficult but common decision for many families with older parents. However, the process to find, review, and apply may feel very daunting for senior citizens and their families. There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding the care at a nursing home, and figuring out how to navigate the process may not be easy.”
the new yorker: what robots can — and can’t do — for the old and lonely (article)
In April, 2020, a few weeks after New York aging departments shut down their adult day programs and communal dining sites, the state placed a bulk order for more than a thousand robot cats and dogs. The pets went quickly, and caseworkers started asking for more: “Can I get five cats?” A few clients with cognitive impairments were disoriented by the machines. One called her local department, distraught, to say that her kitty wasn’t eating. But, more commonly, people liked the pets so much that the batteries ran out. Caseworkers joked that their clients had loved them to death.
new york times: covid forces families to rethink nursing home care (article)
“What’s happened is a welcome sort of market correction for nursing homes,” said Tony Chicotel, a staff attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform in San Francisco. Some families, he said, “ended up agreeing to a nursing home without giving it a lot of deliberation.” But after trying home care during the pandemic, many families found keeping an older relative at home was a viable alternative, he said.
FINANCIAL SH*T
I can’t remember how I found the resource below (“Paying for Senior Care”), but I have to say it’s pretty legit. Meaning, it’s not selling consulting services, not making commission of purchases, and when I filled out the tool using my mother’s situation, it immediately pointed me to the local resources I would expect. The con, as with all such sites, is it’s completely overwhelming. I guess the pro is that actually accurately reflects the experience of the elder caregiver. I have a lot to say on the topic of broke elders and how not to sacrifice yourself to that situation. Stay tuned for more resources and lots of blogs.
Yours truly, Irreverent Rachel
paying for senior care: understand your options for long term care (tool)
“Over 400 programs provide financial assistance for elder care. Help comes from federal, state, and local governments, the VA, non-profits, private organizations, and as many as 50 other agencies. The large number of sources and different and often conflicting qualification rules makes determining one’s eligibility a challenge. By answering a few questions, we help you find the programs for which you or your loved one is currently eligible as well as those programs for which you might become eligible as your situation changes.”
longtermcare.gov (federal site)
By the U.S. Department of Health and Human services: An overview of long-term care, and links to Medicare and Medicaid information.
vox: the staggering, exhausting, invisible costs of caring for america’s elderly (article)
“Some older adults have diligently prepared for their future. They purchased long-term care insurance when it was still affordable, then paid the premiums each month, even as they continued to rise. This is not the norm. Many adults have no plan at all, or assume that Medicare, which currently kicks in at age 65, will cover their health costs. Medicare, however, doesn’t cover the long-term daily care — whether in the home or in a full-time nursing facility — that millions of aging Americans require. For that, you either need to pay out of pocket (the median yearly cost of in-home care with a home health aide in 2020 was $54,912, and the median cost for a private room in a nursing home was $105,850) or have less than $2,000 in assets so that you can qualify for Medicaid, which provides health care, including home health care, for more than 80 million low-income Americans. Even if you qualify, the waiting list for home care assistance for those with Medicaid tops 800,000 people and has an average wait time of more than three years.”
genworth: cost of care trends and insights (site)
“Since 2004, families across America have counted on us to help them understand the cost of care. Our research in 435 cities and towns across all 50 states has not only helped individuals plan for their own care but helped policymakers with forecasting and legislative reform. Over the years, we’ve tracked various trends that have come and gone but one thing hasn’t changed: long term care costs for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and in-home care are higher than most people have planned for and only continue to rise.”