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Who are you caring for?
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How are they managing their medications?
Does their living environment pose any safety concerns?
Fall risks, spoiled food, or other threats to wellbeing
Are they experiencing any memory loss?
Which best describes your loved one's social life?
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By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
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Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
Remember, this assessment is not a substitute for professional advice.
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What worked for my seniors was making sure of access to care by having original Medicare, Parts A&B and a good supplement. This enabled home health care on an ongoing basis to work with top doctors and hospitals when care was needed.
My experience with specialist was excellent.
Being willing to travel for care was important when local doctors didn’t have the expertise to diagnose accurately or to receive proper testing or hospital support.
My parents had great help from Home Health through Original Medicare. This to check vitals, manage meds, provide a bather and physical therapy. It’s also helpful for blood draws and X-rays, flu shots, wound care which keeps mom from having to take dad in for these things. A housekeeper might be easier to find than a hands on caregiver. The housekeeper can be a tremendous help to your mom so she can spend her time with your dad. Plus when you go to visit you aren’t trying to do all the chores for mom while you are there.
I drove three hours one way weekly to bring my mom supplies and clean her home and do her laundry. I brought food I had prepared at home. She had a restricted diet. I finally found a housekeeper towards the end. it was a great help.
Start with locating the nearest hospital. Then, locate the nearest hospital that can handle strokes and heart attacks -you want to be less than 1 hour from one of this type. If are are farther from this type of hospital, seriously consider moving closer.
Then, locate nearest skilled nursing facilities. In rural areas, you probably will have a hard time getting caregivers into the home, but adult day programs, respite, and rehab in local snf may be available.
It's very difficult! I wouldn't recommend it! Hard2Help, I read your follow up response, and see that your parents are already in such a situation. I, too am the sole caregiver for my husband. We are both 63, and I have been doing this for 10 years. It has taken a tremendous toll on my health. We are in a small outlying community, about 20 to 30 miles outside a major metropolis, Phoenix. It has been challenging trying to find caregivers who are willing to come to our home. And the added difficulty of my husband scares off some of the qualified caregivers nearby. Fortunately, we do have doctor's offices and a band new hospital fairly close. As Isthisrealyreal points out, it can be challenging to find help anywhere you live. The needs of our aging boomer generation exceed the availability of qualified caregivers and medical professionals. I feel as though I am going to be caring for my husband until it kills me. His sons plan to place him in a skilled nursing facility in that event. So, I just take it day by day and do my best to get through each day.
My mother had her PCP and social worker besides my POA to help her in a board-and-care in SSF CA that wasn't even a desert but felt like it for her. She always asked me to take her home when no longer could care for herself. And my mom did not like doctors and hated the SSF care home staff besides her running out of her resources for her care at age 93.
My brother up in OR moved her to a retirement care residence near his location for Mom's better humane treatment and hired an ombudsman counseling for her. Mom even stayed in her same room for her different levels of care until she passed away in 2014 at age 95.
Call the county. Call the nearest hospital. It is challenging now and will only get worse with our current government. Call attorney(s) that specialize in elder care.
The first step is to call / do your research and ask for referrals.
You might want to tell us more about your specific situation. I do not know if you are asking for medical care or caregivers.
I live rural and took care of my parents but, I don't live in a medical desert. My house is 10 minutes from the local hospital and 2 hours from the big city. If need be, I can go to where I need and would never give up the rural life.
Specialists involved long drives, invasive and painful test and treatments. Eventually, we found not going to the specialists ended up in a better quality of life. Stopping all the tests to look for hidden horrors and accepting life has a death sentence. Probably gave them a couple of more years each, and those were happier years. Extending the slow death (instead of extending life) had no appeal. So, we stopped going and just stuck with the local GP. for what was best for quality of life.
Agree. I've decided not to undergo "hidden horrors" medical testing, nor would I accept painful, invasive treatments that offer little chance of improving whatever my ailment may be. I do not go to my PCP often and have selectively declined referrals to specialists. (They are scheduled months out anyway.) At 88 my outlook is more "palliative". The problem can be a healthcare system that is oriented towards heroics and preservation of life at all costs. When life becomes existence, to the extent I can, I will opt to make my Final Exit.
You know, when we retired two decades ago we found the best, most beautiful little town and the best piece of land out in nature, about 40 miles from Yosemite. And we cleared and built a lovely little glass cabin and watches the fox and deer play. We thought to retire there. The truth is that it became clear that the best place to retire, and a choice we still had for permanent placement, was "big city" access both for transportation, aging care and medical.
It has been a long long time that our rural areas have been becoming medical deserts as you call them. My mom was alive two decades ago and it was already happening in her state of Missouri; we helped my parents make last move to Kansas City area for that very reason.
I don't have an answer. I wish I did. Aging ANYWHERE is not for sissies. Some honestly want little care, and are ready to go without much "medical fighting warriors" at their side. But we aren't always given the CHOICE to stay or go. We are sometimes caught inbetween, and the medical deserts are nowhere to do that.
We enjoyed our little cabin while we could still weedwhip an acre of it fenced for the dogs to play, still enjoy felling a tree and chopping fire wood. When that was over we sold it to a ranger. We will be forever grateful for that time together there; but our original idea was a bad one.
As long as you had a good time there it was a great idea. No one knows the future. You just outlived the time it was feasible and had to move on to a new adventure. My own parents moved to the mountains and are in a situation of poor health and dementia and refuse to move or allow help, not that it’s available anyhow. I am 2 hours away in the city. At least you were brave enough to realize a change had to be made. I wish my parents were so rational as it’s made my life hell to have to deal with their choices.
Gosh, I live in a city with a million plus people and we can NOT find a PCP after ours moved to Colorado.
There is a tremendous shortage of people entering the care trades and the mandatory vaccine fiasco ran a tremendous amount of qualified professionals from the field.
I just keep calling around and use urgent care or the ER if we need medical assistance.
If you are referring to a caregiver, have you checked with local churches or volunteer programs? They might have resources or know where you can find this service.
We too just lost my husband's PCP. He moved to Iowa. The medical group that he worked for doesn't have another provider to replace him! That is, someone to make house calls.
I am not putting my husband in the car and taking him to a doctor's office! He takes his seatbelt off and opens the car door, yelling for help the whole ride, and once there, waiting an hour in the waiting area, he yells, hits me, and tries to slide out of his wheelchair onto the floor for attention! It's like having a 180 pound toddler!
Unless an emergency arises that warrants calling 911 for an ambulance for transport to the hospital, he's going to have to die in his bed at home.
The care is for my father. My parents live in a medical desert and I can see the toll caregiving is starting to take on my mom. They're not going to leave their hometown so we take turns driving out to help. Sooner, rather than later, they're going to need assistance so we're just trying to be proactive in finding the help that they will need. And yes, we've searched online and tapped into as many resources as we can find. Finding suitable resources in their area is proving to be a challenge, hence the question.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
My experience with specialist was excellent.
Being willing to travel for care was important when local doctors didn’t have the expertise to diagnose accurately or to receive proper testing or hospital support.
A housekeeper might be easier to find than a hands on caregiver. The housekeeper can be a tremendous help to your mom so she can spend her time with your dad. Plus when you go to visit you aren’t trying to do all the chores for mom while you are there.
I drove three hours one way weekly to bring my mom supplies and clean her home and do her laundry. I brought food I had prepared at home. She had a restricted diet.
I finally found a housekeeper towards the end. it was a great help.
Then, locate nearest skilled nursing facilities. In rural areas, you probably will have a hard time getting caregivers into the home, but adult day programs, respite, and rehab in local snf may be available.
Hard2Help, I read your follow up response, and see that your parents are already in such a situation.
I, too am the sole caregiver for my husband. We are both 63, and I have been doing this for 10 years. It has taken a tremendous toll on my health. We are in a small outlying community, about 20 to 30 miles outside a major metropolis, Phoenix. It has been challenging trying to find caregivers who are willing to come to our home. And the added difficulty of my husband scares off some of the qualified caregivers nearby. Fortunately, we do have doctor's offices and a band new hospital fairly close.
As Isthisrealyreal points out, it can be challenging to find help anywhere you live.
The needs of our aging boomer generation exceed the availability of qualified caregivers and medical professionals. I feel as though I am going to be caring for my husband until it kills me. His sons plan to place him in a skilled nursing facility in that event. So, I just take it day by day and do my best to get through each day.
My brother up in OR moved her to a retirement care residence near his location for Mom's better humane treatment and hired an ombudsman counseling for her. Mom even stayed in her same room for her different levels of care until she passed away in 2014 at age 95.
Call the nearest hospital.
It is challenging now and will only get worse with our current government.
Call attorney(s) that specialize in elder care.
The first step is to call / do your research and ask for referrals.
You might want to tell us more about your specific situation.
I do not know if you are asking for medical care or caregivers.
Gena / Touch Matters
My house is 10 minutes from the local hospital and 2 hours from the big city. If need be, I can go to where I need and would never give up the rural life.
Specialists involved long drives, invasive and painful test and treatments. Eventually, we found not going to the specialists ended up in a better quality of life.
Stopping all the tests to look for hidden horrors and accepting life has a death sentence. Probably gave them a couple of more years each, and those were happier years.
Extending the slow death (instead of extending life) had no appeal. So, we stopped going and just stuck with the local GP. for what was best for quality of life.
The truth is that it became clear that the best place to retire, and a choice we still had for permanent placement, was "big city" access both for transportation, aging care and medical.
It has been a long long time that our rural areas have been becoming medical deserts as you call them. My mom was alive two decades ago and it was already happening in her state of Missouri; we helped my parents make last move to Kansas City area for that very reason.
I don't have an answer. I wish I did. Aging ANYWHERE is not for sissies. Some honestly want little care, and are ready to go without much "medical fighting warriors" at their side. But we aren't always given the CHOICE to stay or go. We are sometimes caught inbetween, and the medical deserts are nowhere to do that.
We enjoyed our little cabin while we could still weedwhip an acre of it fenced for the dogs to play, still enjoy felling a tree and chopping fire wood. When that was over we sold it to a ranger. We will be forever grateful for that time together there; but our original idea was a bad one.
There is a tremendous shortage of people entering the care trades and the mandatory vaccine fiasco ran a tremendous amount of qualified professionals from the field.
I just keep calling around and use urgent care or the ER if we need medical assistance.
If you are referring to a caregiver, have you checked with local churches or volunteer programs? They might have resources or know where you can find this service.
The medical group that he worked for doesn't have another provider to replace him! That is, someone to make house calls.
I am not putting my husband in the car and taking him to a doctor's office!
He takes his seatbelt off and opens the car door, yelling for help the whole ride, and once there, waiting an hour in the waiting area, he yells, hits me, and tries to slide out of his wheelchair onto the floor for attention! It's like having a 180 pound toddler!
Unless an emergency arises that warrants calling 911 for an ambulance for transport to the hospital, he's going to have to die in his bed at home.