Care Collaboration: How Professional Teamwork Can Serve Your Family During Stressful Times

Dad ended up in the hospital and Mom is overwhelmed, scared, and nervous about the health of her lifelong partner. A sudden visit to the Emergency Room is often the beginning of a new engagement for an Aging Life Care Professional or a daily money manager.

Such situations usually call for an “all hands on deck approach” with an Aging Life Care Professional being the best and most valuable resource to call in first.

Aging Life Care Professionals® are experienced, certified health and human services specialists who act as a guide and advocate for families who are caring for older relatives or disabled adults. They have extensive knowledge about the costs, quality, and availability of resources in their local communities.

Many situations start with a health matter but soon seep into the finances. How will the bills get paid, is there enough money in the bank to cover the surge in expenses, what if there’s a need to layer in ongoing daily support, or consider a care community?

While you may have managed your health and finances independently for decades, the complications a health crisis brings often make this the time when you call in outside resources. The health care system is confusing, and you will face choices you don’t foresee and can’t imagine. Figuring out your loved one’s approach to filing and financial organization is often too stressful and fatiguing for your family when you are more interested in spending time together than digging through files or financial statements.

A daily money manager is a professional who can take over someone’s day-to-day financial tasks. A variety of people employ daily money managers, ranging from elderly clients to those simply too busy to maintain total control and accuracy of their financial needs.

But many older Americans and their families are not familiar with either daily money managers or Aging Life Care Professionals. However, an Aging Life Care Professional and daily money manager team can deliver the expertise to resolve both health and financial questions quickly and allow your family to maintain familiar and loving roles.

When Daily Money Managers and Aging Life Care Professionals Work Together

Daily money managers and Aging Life Care Professionals often team up on a variety of situations to help:

• Older adults with a health crisis or chronic health condition needing ongoing health care services
• Single adults with a medical issue who don’t have, or do not want family to serve in a support role for their health and medical needs
• Special needs adults who need someone to help them when mom and dad predecease them
• Solo agers who are planning ahead and need someone to name as their Durable Power of Attorney/Trustee and Healthcare Power of Attorney

Your care collaboration team can work together to create a strong and efficient solution to:

Manage a health crisis or hospitalization:

• Take over bill payment if the regular bill payer is now sick
• Make sense of multiple bills and insurance claims
• Make recommendations for quality rehabilitation facilities
• Find resources in the community to provide care at home
• Establish a new monthly budget based on care costs
• Initiate a Long-Term Care (LTC) policy claim, when appropriate

Maintain independence for older adults living at home or in a retirement community:

• Support or provide ongoing bill pay services
• Navigate and streamline multiple financial accounts
• Protect against frauds and scams
• Manage cash flow to ensure income and expenses are in sync
• Coordinate home maintenance services
• Collaborate to ensure care costs are within your budget

“It takes a village to age ‘em as we as raise them. Many hands make light work. Teamwork makes the dream work.”

Yes, there are many aspects to helping a loved one age well or come through a health crisis. Having a collaborative professional team that includes someone to advocate for healthcare needs along with someone who can help navigate, simplify, and organize the day-to-day finances provides your loved one, and everyone around them, with practical, reliable resources to make every day a little better.

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This post is co-authored by Kay Bransford and Colleen Duewel, who often work together to help clients.

Kay Bransford
POA, Trustee, and Daily Money Manager
MemoryBanc

Kay Bransford is a Daily Money Manager, personal Fiduciary, and the best-selling author of MemoryBanc: Your Workbook for Organizing Life. She has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, The Huffington Post, and BBC, in addition to many television and radio programs, to educate families, caregivers, and retirees on why getting organized is important to the well-being of every adult. The agency of daily money managers Kay founded, MemoryBanc, received an “Older-Adult Focused Innovation” award from AARP Foundation, and her workbook was named a “Book of the Year” by Today’s Caregiver.

Colleen Duewel, MPH, CMC, CDP
Eldercare Consultant and Aging Life Care Professional®
LionHeart Eldercare & Consulting

Colleen Duewel, MPH, CMC, CDP is the founder of Lionheart Eldercare & Consulting and a Certified Aging Lifecare Professional®. Colleen has extensive experience as an Advanced Care Planner, certified geriatric care manager, nursing home ombudsman, certified dementia practitioner and hospice visitor.