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Unless we get bad news at the next pet scan, mom will be going back home in September/October. :-D We plan to hire a geriatric care manager (GCM), and mom mostly agrees. My question is how to do this as I am 1,000 miles away from where she lives. My concern is that if she goes back without someone in place and/or a process to get someone, it won't happen. She currently has a very mild cognitive impairment, but is mostly physically healthy. She is fine to live independently, so long as there is no medical crisis.


Are my expectations reasonable? Is here something else that I should take into consideration? This is my plan:


1. Research possible GCMs on-line. See if we can find any recommendations for Tucson from anyone we know.


2. Determine what services we need now, and what our needs may be in the future.


3. Shortlist possible GCMs and do reference checks.


4. Set up in-person appointments for when mom and I (or sibling) get to Tucson.


Maybe we should do phone interviews and review contracts before returning to Tucson?


thanks in advance.

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I agree with the Skype interview suggestion and want to add I would interview three at least, if you have that many available to you. It's important to have a good personality fit. The specialist we chose expressed a strong opinion that the elder should make their own decisions until they could not safely do that anymore. Another was much more in favor of making the decisions for them. "We'll get the job done even if I have to 'fib'." I don't think either of those approaches is particularly wrong, but one was definitely a better fit for the people we are trying to help.

One of the three I interviewed was less expensive per hour and would be compensated by the services she directed us to if we chose to use them. I was less comfortable with that than someone paid only by the hour.
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modernbird Aug 2018
Marcia, thank you. Great information. I had no idea that not all would be fiduciaries. I would not be comfortable either with someone getting compensated by services. Personality is key for my mom. She'll have to really like the person.

I hope that you don't mind a couple more questions:
How did you find your specialist?
What was the hourly rate or was there a different contract structure for services?
How did you check references?

Thanks,
mb
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It is the "from a distance" that is confusing.
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modernbird Aug 2018
Sorry, i'm not trying to be confusing. Mom is with me and sibling now, in a city on the east coast. We need to hire someone in Arizona, where mom will return by October (fingers crossed).
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Start your search here
https://www.aginglifecare.org

They are now called Aging Life Care Specialists. There is formal education and certification. Request resumes, Skype interview, then a trip to Tucson for interview with mom present. If you are POA, I certainly would not delegate this choice to another.

O n another thread, just a couple of weeks ago, you state mom is living with you. What happened?
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modernbird Aug 2018
She's still living with me. She moved in after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis - which turned out not to be pancreatic cancer!!!!!!!!! So we're back to her normal craziness (which is very real) plus a new memory issue. Meds are still out of wack because the changes the oncologist made after the cancer diagnosis, but we are working on it. It's been a long 6 weeks having her here, and she won't leave until sometime in September, once we know the scan is clear.

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't even thought of a skype or facetime interview.
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