Family caregivers often get a crash course in elder care once they begin looking after elderly relatives. The biggest lesson many learn initially is that organization is key, especially when an older relative develops a need for urgent medical care.

Many families struggle to convey important medical details to health care staff. That’s where creating an emergency packet of medical information can help. This information can be given to paramedics, emergency room staff, and urgent care clinicians.

Here’s how to build your own emergency medical packet.

If you’re looking after an older relative whose health is in decline, and you are experiencing chaos, it might be because your plan for elder care is reactive. An attorney at a Life Care Planning Law Firm explains in Part 2 of this series.

If you want to delay a loved one’s application for Medicaid benefits to pay for nursing home care, there are plenty of ways to do it. This article, the first in a multi-part series, explains two common ways people mess up.

What are the most common mistakes people make when attempting to qualify an elderly loved one for Medicaid? We posed this question to Matthew Bravette, one of the attorneys at Bratton Law Group, a Life Care Planning Law Firm with offices in the Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.

If you’re looking after an older relative whose health is in decline and you are experiencing chaos, it might be because your plan for elder care is reactive. 

What are the most common signs that you’re taking a reactive approach to elder care? We posted this question to Bailey Schiermeyer, a Certified Elder Law Attorney at Elder Law of East Tennessee, a Life Care Planning Law Firm with offices in Knoxville and Johnson City.

Did you know that two thirds of American adults have done nothing to plan ahead for the healthcare they might need if they’re incapacitated?

It’s a sobering statistic, one that comes from a 2017 study done by the University of Pennsylvania¹. Among the 795,909 Americans from the 150 included studies, researchers found that 36.7 percent had completed some form of Advance Directive. Only 29.3 percent had completed an Advance Directive that contains actual care wishes, and 33.4 percent had designated a Healthcare Power of Attorney.

For older adults living in skilled nursing facilities, a care conference with the facility staff is an important meeting. What are the signs that a care conference isn’t going as well as it should? We posed this question to Claire Merendino, one of the elder care coordinators at Bratton Law Group, a Life Care Planning Law Firm with offices in South Jersey, Central Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Claire has attended hundreds of care conferences over the years, and she can tell in an instant whether the care conference will be productive—or not.

If you were working with a VA pension poacher, how would you know? Chris Johnson, a VA Accredited attorney, Marine Corps veteran, and partner at Takacs McGinnis Elder Care Law, explains.

Have you heard of VA pension poaching? Pension poachers are organizations that help veterans apply for VA pension aid and attendance benefits and then require the veteran to purchase home care services from their organization at inflated prices and with excessive fees.

Are you working with a VA pension poacher? Here are five warning signs.

By Mary Jo Johnson, MPA, CMC

During my 34 years in the long-term care industry, I have embraced the value of the care planning process, not because it is a regulation but because it is a vital tool to assure the delivery of person-centered care. 

Transcending the medical-institutional model, person-centered care calls for a more individualized, social model of care that is built around the needs of the resident (person). It is meant to eliminate (or at least reduce) the dictating demands of the care process to one more driven by a person’s voice and choice.