Services & Benefits

Your loved one may be in crisis and you may be faced with making care decisions or they may be readmitted to the hospital over and over again without full resolution.

How a Care Manager Helps: When an elderly person has been in the hospital, they are often discharged from the hospital, in a weakened condition, and may even need to have rehab assistance at a nursing home. The care manager reviews the discharge and the person’s condition to make recommendations about the best nursing home or other care. The care manager then visits the elderly person in the nursing home and tracks their care and progress. They assist with care meetings and Medicare reporting for claims. If there are issues during rehab, the care manager has eyes on the person so sees the issues, communicates with the family, and helps resolve any care issues. When it’s time to go home, the care manager can help find the best in-home care services, can visit them regularly to monitor the care, can take them to medical appointments, and can help arrange their home for ease of mobility.

How does this benefit your family? You have eyes and ears on the ground. You have someone who knows the care situation and can help with progress. There is an advocate visiting who can act when needed for care changes.

Aging affects all of us where we eventually cannot do all the same things that we did when we were young. When someone is aging in their own home, it’s important to have a professional who is able to review the home, and those providing care, to make sure that all care needs are not only met but that they exceed expectations.

How a Care Manager Helps: The care manager stops by to visit on a regular basis, watching for changes in the elderly person such as memory, speaking, home safety, and other signs that they may need more help in the home.

How does this benefit your family? Your loved one may need help with caring for the home, they may need cleaning assistance as simple as help with laundry or a full house cleaning service. They may need help getting pets to the vet, the groomers, or on a walk. They may need social stimulation such as a hobby or a group setting in the community. The care manager communicates these changes with you and provides recommendations to maintain their quality of life.

There is a first time for everything and family caregivers often face their first time for various care situations for their aging parents. Whether it is a gradual deterioration in health or mental cognition, or it is a crisis situation suddenly upon your family, it is easy to be uncertain about the here and now and the future.

How a Care Manager Helps: A care manager received an education to learn about the steps involved in helping families with care. They also may have been through the situation with their own families but they certainly have been through the process with other families in your community. They know what to expect and how to figure out the best care process.

How does this benefit your family? It gives your family peace and clarity. When you hear the care options and know that you have choices and can make the one that you feel is best for your loved one, then you can rest well, knowing you are doing the best job possible. You do not have to be alone. Also, your aging parent or grandparent can see that you want to help them in the best way possible and this allows you to have the family connection you desire.

Life changes as you age but that doesn’t mean that you can’t maintain the activities in your life that bring you joy and relaxation. Even if you don’t quite need aging care, yet, you can still work with a care manager to plan for your life. If you have specific goals, plans, or ideas you want to have carried out for your life, we are able to help. If you are a solo ager and don’t have family available, to care for you, then we can work with you to set up a plan and make sure that your wishes are followed. You do not have to face aging alone, especially if you have health or mental well-being concerns.

If a person is unable to make decisions or care for themselves, a Guardian may be needed to make care decisions and assist with the welfare of the person. This is a legal process involving the court system. Sometimes a family member may be able to be the Guardian and other times it is in the person’s best interest for a professional Guardian to be placed in the position of decision making. I am a registered Guardian with the ability to manage the decisions for care for a person who is unable to do so themselves. As a Guardian, I look at the entire situation and make all decisions based on what is best for the individual and will make decisions for care, where they should live, how to make sure they get proper medical care and will even make sure that they receive support for social activities. 

As a Guardian appointed by the court system I will inventory all property owned by the person, I will help make decision that are in the best interest of the person. Often this means that I work with attorneys and financial advisors to make sure that the best decisions are made. I also file reports with the court to account for the decisions made. Some decisions require that the court approve. My goal is to always act in the best interests of the person in accordance with my training as a professional Guardian.

Designating a health care surrogate means that you execute a legal document indicating who will make health care decisions for you should you be unable to do so. The document may limit the decision making to only situations where you are incapacitated or it may also have an option where you give them permission to act on your behalf even if you are not incapacitated. 

Incapacitated means that you do not have the mental or physical capability to make your own decisions for care so you are giving the surrogate the right to speak with physicians and other medical providers to make care decisions on your behalf.

Giving a surrogate this ability when you are not incapacitated gives them the ability to help you when you don’t have the energy to make the decisions. You may mentally be able to make them but you are too exhausted and you want someone else to help on your behalf.

OECM is able to operate as your health care surrogate should you need someone who is knowledgeable about the medical care system and who will make decisions that are in the interest of your best care.