JustCare

Tag: Caregivers

  • What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Talk to your doctor

    What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Talk to your doctor

    One fourth or so of Medicare annual spending–about $33,500 a person–goes to the cost of care for the 1.8 million people over 65 who die each year.  The cost of their care is high largely because they often have complex conditions, and two-thirds of them die in the hospital.What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Medicare now covers advance care planning to ensure that older adults have their care wishes honored in the days, weeks and months before they die.

    Medicare will cover the full cost of a visit with your doctor to discuss your end-of-life wishes as part of your Medicare annual wellness visit. If you do a separate trip to the doctor, traditional Medicare covers 80 percent of the cost. If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan, call the plan to find out your out-of-pocket costs. Here are six reasons why you and your loved ones should do advance care planning and create advance directives.

    The data suggest that most people do not plan ahead–through advance care planning–and do not understand their care options. For example, most people prefer to die at home if they are terminally ill. But, they often have not had the chance to decide their care wishes or to share them with trusted family members, doctors or others in their social network. And, they end up dying in the hospital. So, ask your loved ones about end of life care.

    Hospitals and nursing homes are required to ask patients on admission whether they have advance directives–living wills and health care proxies–under the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991.   These care facilities must keep a record of whether patients have advance directives in their files. But, patients are not required to have them.

    About 40 percent of people over 65 have not done advance care planning and do not have advance directives. Each state has its own law regarding advance directives.  To find out how to get advance directives for your state as well as information on how to complete them, check out Just Care’s get help page here.

    Medicare also covers hospice services, including pain management, palliative care to offer comfort, pain and other symptoms management for people with complex and chronic conditions, and up to five days of respite care for caregivers. Hospice services are usually available in patients’ homes. Today, more than four in ten people with Medicare elect hospice care, more than double the rate from 2000 (23 percent).

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Caring for mom, dad, older adults: Ten key pieces of information you need

    Caring for mom, dad, older adults: Ten key pieces of information you need

    Whether you care about your mom, dad or other loved ones, you want to be sure that the older adults in your life are safe in an emergency and that someone they trust is keeping track of key information for their health and wellness. Of course, much of this information is personal, so even your mom or dad may not want to share it with you. You should help them understand that the information can be critical in a crisis, when they cannot act on their own–whether they are aging in place, in an assisted living facility or nursing home. Here are ten key pieces of information family caregivers need:

    1. A list of the key people in their social network, including family members, friends and neighbors, both people who can pay a visit and people who speak to them by phone
    2. Doctor and pharmacy contacts
    3. Social Security information, including their Social Security number
    4. Medicare and supplemental health insurance policy numbers and contacts
    5. Medical records, including medical history, chronic conditions, allergies, and a list of all the medications they take, both prescription and over-the-counter
    6. Financial information
      • Names of all financial institutions at which they keep their money and contacts
      • Checking and savings accounts
      • Brokerage and retirement accounts
      • Credit card accounts
      • Financial adviser and  accountant contacts
      • Where to find keys to lock boxes and/or how to open a safe in their homes
    7. Legal information, including a copy of their will, power of attorney, living will and health care proxy, if they have them, as well as the name and contact information for their lawyer, if they have one.
    8. Life insurance and other insurance policies and contacts
    9. Mortgage and/or rent information, as well as the car title and the deed to their home if they own it
    10. Utility providers and contacts
  • Support family caregivers: Why your voice matters now

    Support family caregivers: Why your voice matters now

    There are 43 million Americans caring for a frail older adult or a person with a disability. Yet few of the political parties acknowledge this large and growing part of our population. The Family Caregiver Platform Project (FCPP), caregivercorps.org, hopes to change that. As a national, non-partisan effort, the FCPP aims to marshal the power of family caregivers by helping them raise their voices in a coherent message that asks for greater recognition and support.

    The FCPP encourages caregivers to bring their concerns to their local political party, because individuals can often have greater impact at the county, district or state levels. They need to petition for new policies that will address family caregiver needs—such as more training, inclusion in care plans, and organized volunteer help. If politicians agree that caregiver issues are important, they can vote to include them in their party platform.

    Why are platforms important? Political platforms reflect issues that matter to the people in that party and state. As declarations of value, the platforms will guide future policy decisions in that state and may eventually influence the national agenda. In the next few months, meetings will be held in 36 states to shape policy priorities in the form of platform planks or resolutions. Now is the time to carry suggestions to the political parties in your state.

    What will you say? Language for submissions to a political party can be found on the FCPP master list of policy suggestions. There are also easy-to-use templates for model language for platform submissions and resolutions, and a memo focused on family values and fiscal responsibility.

    To whom will you say it? State listings on the FCPP website include key contacts, dates for meetings and deadlines for submissions, some of which can be done on-line. People who want to advocate for family caregivers can also reach the FCPP team at [email protected].

    Visit caregivercorps.org and sign up to support family caregivers and receive updates on the success of the movement to get caregiving issues on the political radar this year.

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    Just Care offers a wide range of simple expert advice for caregivers, including:

  • Caregiving: Freedom’s just another word for no one left to lose

    Caregiving: Freedom’s just another word for no one left to lose

    I was struck recently by an author’s description of her caregiving roles and subsequent losses of parents and parent-in-law in an article in the New York Times. The writer, Margaret Renkl, said “the end of caregiving isn’t freedom. It’s grief.” For most people I imagine it’s some of both.

    People leave jobs and lose other connections as their energies are directed into caregiving roles for elderly relatives. When death finally comes, some people describe it as a relief, especially for relatives who may have become paranoid or belligerent, or who no longer recognize family members. Others imagine mom or dad “never would have wanted to live like this” and are relieved for the elder as well when the end comes.

    To cope, it’s important to realize that feeling of anger, sadness, stress, and loneliness are normal, as is some guilt about being relieved or even happy that it’s over. It’s important to use support systems—both family and friends, as well as professionals to take care of the caregiver—yourself, by getting enough sleep and exercise as you get into a new routine.

    As with any loss, allow yourself time to grieve. It will take time to fill in those parts of your life with relationships and activities formerly take up by caregiving, unless of course, as for the New York Times article author, and for many Baby Boomers, another elder is just around the corner needing care. Try to be understanding with those who may not know what to say or who try to minimize your grief.

  • Caring for both parents and kids: We’re all in it together

    Caring for both parents and kids: We’re all in it together

    We might be told that we are an every person for herself society but there’s compelling data illustrating why kids and grandkids should be as invested in Medicare and Social Security as older adults and people with disabilities. In short, we’re all in it together. A 2013 poll by The Pew Research Center reveals that almost half of all adults in their forties and fifties have both parents over 65 and children they are caring for. Care comes in many forms, including financial and emotional support, as well as handling affairs.

    Almost one in seven adults (15 percent) are financially supporting both parents and children. Almost one third of those with a living parent over 65, (32 percent) have financially supported a parent in the last year. And, of these adults with a living parent over 65, more than seven in 10 (72 percent), are providing ongoing financial support to a parent.

    Just under four in 10 middle-aged adults (38 percent) say they are providing emotional support to both parents and children. Moreover, three in ten with a parent say their parents need help handling their affairs; about half of these middle-aged adults provide some of that help.

    Understandably, as adults grow older, their parents’ needs increase. More than half of adults over 60 with a parent still living say their parent needs help with daily activities. Three quarters of them with a parent over 80 said that their parents rely on them for emotional support, if not often then sometimes.

    This all said, more middle-aged adults are providing support to a grown child, 25 or older, than to a parent. Of those with grown children, more than 73 percent said they had provided some financial support to their grown child in the last year.

    Also noteworthy: In a 2011 survey, Pew found that 44 percent of older adults, 65 or older, said that they had given financial assistance to a grown child in the past year.

    Given the dependencies of the generations upon one another, it’s time we start thinking about Medicare and Social Security as programs that serve everyone in America.

  • How can you help someone you love decide when to stop driving?

    How can you help someone you love decide when to stop driving?

    Getting older does not mean that you cannot continue driving.  But, the last thing you want is for people you love to hurt themselves or others.  As people age, they can lose mental and physical functions that enable them to drive safely.  The National Institute on Aging has several tips for helping people decide whether they should continue driving or rely on other forms of transportation.

    Responsible driving depends upon good reflexes. And, good driving is often about making snap decisions. So, if people you love have trouble seeing, turning their head, climbing stairs, responding quickly, or confuse the brake and the gas pedals, those are signals that driving might put them and others at risk.  Similarly, if driving makes them anxious, stressed or tired, those could be indicators that it’s time for them to stop.

    People who have trouble keeping up with the flow of traffic, seeing when cars are coming at them, making sense of the traffic signs on the road or staying in the proper lane should likely also not be driving.  They will know whether they are having problems if other drivers are honking at them, if they had minor accidents or have been pulled over by a traffic officer.

    For sure, once people you love lose their vision, hearing, reflexes or have had a stroke or another serious condition, you should advise them to take a driving test every three years. If they continue to drive, encourage them to stay home in bad weather and, if possible, take alternate routes on quieter roads that are less stressful.  For more information, click here.

  • Caregivers have rights too…at least in some cases

    Caregivers have rights too…at least in some cases

    We all know how hard being a caregiver can be. The financial, emotional an physical tolls are often enormous. Caregiving demands are likely to pull people away from their paid jobs. Thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act, caregivers have rights.  And, it’s important to know your rights to balance work and family needs. In certain cases, you have the right to take up to twelve weeks unpaid leave from your job each year, without risk of losing that job or with the right to return to an equivalent job an benefits. If the care is for a family member with a serious illness, you do not need to take the time off in a block but can break it up (for example, take one day a week).
    The Family and Medical Leave Act safeguards your job along with health insurance benefits, when these conditions are met.
    1. The employer is a federal, state or local agency, a school or a private company with more than 50 employees.
    2. You have worked for the employer for at least one full year and 1250 hours.
    3. Your spouse, child or parent has a serious medical conditions.
    4. You give 30 days notice.
    Of course many of us will face caregiving demands and not qualify for the protections that the Family and Medical Leave Act offer. In those cases, speak with the human resources department at your job to see whether you can arrange a work schedule that better allows you to balance work and family caregiving needs.For more information , you can call the Family and Medical Leave hotline at 1-8000-959-FMLA.
  • Could your cellphone distractions be harming your grandkids?

    Could your cellphone distractions be harming your grandkids?

    A recent study in Pediatrics looks at patterns of cellphone use by parents and other caregivers during mealtime.  While the researchers drew no conclusions from the range of patterns they captured, they found that many caregivers were distracted by their cellphones during meals and were not engaged with the children they were caring for.

    No one knows the long-term effects of cellphone distractions.  But, data show that talking to and engaging with children helps with their language development and vocabulary.