Why Hire A Geriatric Care Manager?

I often recommend that my clients or their families hire a geriatric care manager to assist them in the maze of issues that come up during the transitions of aging.  The New York Times has an excellent post on their blog, A New Age, about why you would hire a care manager and what they can do for you.  Excerpts from the article are below:

A professional geriatric care manager has been educated in variousfields of human services — social work, psychology, nursing,gerontology — and trained to assess, plan, coordinate, monitor andprovide services for the elderly and their families. Advocacy for olderadults is a primary function of the care manager.

An important part of working with the client and their families ischemistry. Be sure you get along with and like the individual you areconsidering hiring.

A relationship with a professional geriatric care manager can allow thechildren of the elderly person to be children, while someone elsemanages the situation. When a son or daughter is providing the hands-oncare to the parent, the quality time they have to be there emotionallyfor their parent is limited…. The care manager can handle the difficultinterpersonal issues, address the immediate problem, remain connectedonce the crisis passes and get back involved as the situation requiresit.

Geriatric care managers are a great addition to the team, and can help clients determine what their care giving needs are, what facilities would be best for them, help with adjusting to new living situations and facilitate family meetings to insure that relationships remain intact even during difficult times.