Geriatric Care Management: What Does a Geriatric Consultant Do?

What Is Geriatric Care?

A Geriatric Consultant & Planner is a qualified healthcare professional that assists individuals and families to understand, anticipate and manage their current life circumstances. This can include making care decisions, locating resources, facilitating and planning for implementing resources, benefits, and Medicaid application assistance as well as referrals of support in the spirit of maintaining a person’s or family’s quality of life.

Why Is Geriatric Care Important?

Older adults are happiest when they can continue an independent lifestyle, making their own decisions about daily living. However, there may come a critical time for older adults when illness, memory loss, disability or simple problems of aging arise. These new challenges can have significant physical, social, and emotional impacts on older adults and jeopardize their well-being. For family members who live out of state, this creates tremendous worry about their parent(s) concern as to what to do next. A professional geriatric consultant & planner can provide the solution to this dilemma by helping the family to develop a coordinated plan of care to assist the older adult.

How Can Geriatric Consultants Help?

Geriatric consultants can assist seniors and their families by providing for a thorough assessment of a person’s level of social, emotional, and medical factors, then coordinating a variety of services to meet the unique functional and care needs of the older adult. This can involve working closely with Care Managers, Trust Officers, Guardians and Estate Planning professionals on the client’s behalf.

The consultant can become an integral part of this process by building a trusting relationship with the older adult, acting as both advocate and friend, and is readily available as a resource for the family to evaluate needs and services as well as to help develop a long-range plan for care.

These plans developed with the family by the consultant may include the referral to a geriatric care manager who can arrange for personal care, monitoring in-home services, facilitating long term care placement, connecting clients to financial assistance/community/government programs, and acting as a liaison between the person with dementia and their local and/or long-distance family members and caregivers. This coordinated plan of care helps older adults meet the challenges of daily living and maximizes their quality of life. It also offers reassurance and peace of mind for the family member that may reside many miles away.

What Are The Geriatric Care Manager Fees?

Costs for a Geriatric Care Consultant & Planner vary based on needs but usually include an initial assessment, an assessment evaluation, and a written report with recommendations. The initial assessment may require more than one meeting, particularly if the out-of-town family is to be involved. If hired by the client or family, subsequent fees are based upon an hourly rate that can be discussed in person or by phone, fax, or email.

When Do You Need To Meet A Geriatric Consultant?

Get in touch with one of the professional geriatric care manager groups If you need more advice in these aspects

• Medicare/Medicaid
• Assisted Living Services
• Reverse Mortgages
• End of Life (Hospice) Care
• Veteran’s Assistance
• Financial Planning
• Home Health
• Wills/Power of Attorney
• Free & Low Cost Prescriptions
• Elder Abuse
• Elderly Depression
• Long Term Care
• Social Security
• Outpatient Rehab
• Travel & Recreation
• Nutrition & Exercise
• Health & Diseases
• Special Needs Trust

Where To Find The Matching Geriatric Consultant?

Here is a list of Association Of Professional Geriatric Care Managers for you to get started.

• National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers – http://www.caremanager.org
• Greater New York Chapter – http://www.nygcm.org
• New Jersey Chapter – http://www.njgcm.org
• Mid-Atlantic Chapter – http://www.gcmonline.org
• Philadelphia Chapter – http://www.pagcm.org
• Other Chapters – http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/CareManagementLinks.htm