In honor of the Aging Life Care® Month of May, here are our responses to a few myths about Aging Life Care Managers®.
You only need an Aging Life Care Manager® after a serious emergency.
Working with a care manager can actually help seniors prevent major emergencies! We bring an experienced eye to a senior’s home, identifying and addressing risks that could lead to serious accidents. We help clients create care plans for emergencies, preventing the need for last minute decisions during a stressful situation.
Aging Life Care Managers® take over the decision-making process for clients.
Our role as care managers is to advise clients and involved family members on the best care option, taking into account the options available, medical history, and the client’s wishes for their own care. In the end, the client (or the person with the power of attorney) makes the final decisions on which care services they would like us to arrange.
Aging Life Care Managers® are not worth the money.
Working with a care manager can actually help you save money on care! Making a care plan ahead of time means avoiding last-minute costs while making sure that you are on track financially to have the care that you want for your future. With our holistic approach to care, we take a step back to see what services work, and which ones are superfluous, helping clients cut down to the services that actually bring real solutions. Additionally, we don’t take commissions or referral fees, so we never recommend certain services or companies for our own benefit. Instead, each recommendation comes from our genuine assessment of what is best for the client.
Family members can handle aging care on their own.
Aging can bring many unexpected challenges to seniors and their loved ones. Different behaviors due to illness, cognitive decline, can add emotional stress & make caregiving more difficult. Burnout is common among family caregivers. As care managers, we support the family caregivers of our clients, providing them with opportunities for respite care and access to resources that help them balance caregiving with their own mental and physical health. While family caregivers are highly capable, we are here to let them know that they are not alone!
Aging Life Care Managers® are the same thing as case managers.
While “case manager” and “care manager” may sound similar, our jobs are actually quite different. Case managers typically focus on short-term, immediate needs such as coordinating hospital discharges, while care managers provide ongoing, personalized support that addresses the broader, long-term needs associated with aging or chronic conditions.
How can I start working with Growing Options?
Send us an email at info@growingoptions.com or give us a call at 203.258.2640 today! We would be honored to help you or your aging loved ones find the best solutions to all your aging challenges.