GetHealthHelp

Choices for when you out live your assets.

DON’T WORRY

Many adult children who are paying for in-home caregivers are facing the reality that their parents will outlive their savings. By the time they are calling me, it usually goes something like this, “My Dad is running out of money, I need to place him in an assisted living facility,” or “My Mom has spent everything, now she needs to get on Medicaid.” The children have decided on the ‘Tactics’ without considering what the ‘Strategy’ is for reaching their parent’s life expectations or taken into account the ‘Goals’ and associated realities of their parent’s situation.

Miriam-Webster defines strategy as a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal, usually over a long period of time.

Sari Klinghoffer, Director of Sales, WPI Communications Inc. wrote “A strategy looks at the big picture and uses various tactics in its execution.” The big picture is to gain their customers trust. In the past she used direct mail. Presently they have added blogging and social media. So, while the ‘Tactics’ may have changed with the times, the ‘Strategy’ and ‘Goals’ have remained the same.

This may be said of our Elders also because the things that really mattered to them continue to do so, but the tactics must change in response to the new financial situation.

BE HAPPY

Instead of using business terms like strategy and tactics, we use words like ‘Life Expectations & Planning’. Life Expectations is often thought of in terms of years. But, instead we should think of what we ‘expect’ from life. An example of a lifetime expectation strategy would be to find contentment or peace, or you may want to find excitement and fun. We call it ‘Giving a Voice to Your Health Concerns.”

My client Virginia, who has stage 4 Alzheimer’s Disease told me that she likes to have change in her life. She was outspending her income and had drawn down all of her assets. The family thought she was ready for a nursing home. Her strategy is to keep life interesting. The tactic we employed to reach her strategy was moving to a different assisted living facility, one that had more activities for Alzheimer’s patients and where the costs were within her income level.

Sandra, a client, saved her money from years of teaching to purchase her dream apartment, even though the monthly bills were eating into her investment accounts. She never expected to find herself confined to a wheelchair. Always fiercely independent, Sandra hired private aides to tend to her needs. After depleting her savings, she told me that she’d rather live in her apartment without food than move to a nursing home. With the help of her accountant and attorney, we are getting Medicaid coverage and enrolling in a Long Term Managed Care Plan. Her strategy is to stay at home, her tactics are to apply for Medicaid Long Term Care coverage.

You can apply this concept to any situation. First determine your strategy, your mission, your goal. Then find the resources to provide you with the tactics to execute your strategy. A Patient Advocate can help you to think things through to identify your strategy and to prioritize which tactics will work best for you.

Call us for a free phone consultation, Caryn Isaacs, Paient Advocate GetHealthHelp.com 347-965-9222. E-mail patientadvocate@gethealthhelp.com

Resource:
Sari Klinghoffer, Director of Sales
WPI Communications, Inc.
Your Source for Newsletter Marketing
55 Morris Avenue
Springfield, New Jersey 07081
Tel: 973-467-8700 | 800-323-4995 Ext. 1028
Direct: 973-544-0410
Fax: 973-467-0368 | 800-677-9742
E-mail: slklinghoffer@wpicommunications.com
Web: http://www.wpicommunications.com/

December 21, 2012 - Posted by Aging Icon | Uncategorized | adult children, goal, home care, Medicaid, Medicare, out of money, parents, spending, strategy, tactic