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We've heard from nursing homes, assisted living facilities, friends and family members, that caring for seniors during this economic crisis can be challenging. Some families can no longer afford to put their parents into care. Others actually view caring for parents at home as a source of income.
And with massive state budget shortfalls, government-funded elderly care projects look unstable as well. What are the difficult decisions facing people caring for an elderly parent or loved one, and how those decisions are being complicated by the economy?
Are you caring for an elderly parent or loved one? How is the economy affecting your decisions about what care to seek? Do you work in long-term care? What changes do you see as the economy worsens?
Tagged as: abuse · economy · senior
Photo credit: DerrickT/ Flickr / Creative Commons
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Correction to previous post: To volunteer to drive with Metropolitan Family Service, please contact Project Linkage, at 503.249.0471.
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The responsibility of caring for an elderly person often falls upon an adult child. Although it is a difficult discussion to have, one of the best ways to avoid conflict and drama is to have a conversation about the parent's needs and wishes before a crisis occurs.
The primary question to ask is,"If something should happen to you and you are no longer able to care for yourself, who do you want to care for you, and how do you want them to pay for it?"
Asking these questions can open the door to many conversations about assets and end-of-life decisions. There are numerous professionals who can help protect wealth, including long-term care insurance sales agents, elder law and estate planning attorneys.
There is also a fabulous organization in Oregon that helps people who have limited resources. SHIBA - the Senior Health and Insurance Benefit Agency has a combination of state employees and a large cadre of volunteers who can help people wade through the Medicare and Medicaid maze. They guide people who have very few assets find long-term care.
Even though the topics about a person's incapacity and death can be difficult and depressing, it is one of the most important discussions we can have with the people we love, and doing it ahead of time can save a lot of drama and emotional upset when something happens.
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I'm an adult protective services investigator. As times get tougher, my business goes up. Exploitation, abuse and neglect of elderly and disabled Oregonians is through the roof, and yet adult protective services was on the legislative chopping block this year.
It is a horrible conundrum that, as times get tough, public services are needed more -- and resources to fund these services shrink. It is especially true in Oregon, which doesn't have stable revenue sources for these services.
This fact doesn't hit home until you need these services. As we age, more and more of us do. It's time to invest in ourselves, for a change. Public services need stable funding.
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Federal stimulus funds approved by Congress are meant to assist states by providing services to our most vulnerable citizens. But cuts to senior and disability programs alone would forfeit nearly $200 million in Federal Funds. The consequence of job and federal fund losses will be a deepening and lengthening of the recession.
Home care workers face a 38 percent reduction in hours. The human impact on care recipients and their families is devastating. The cuts mean a loss of more than 6,000 jobs, mostly held by women who are relatively low-income.
Why in the name of decency would the Governor and Legislature even think of giving up an infusion of $200 million in stimulus money which would help to care for seniors and those who are disabled? Where are our leaders' priorities!
Large scale citizen involvement can make a difference and turn around a disastrous course. Please write or phone Gov. Kulongoski and your legislators. Tell them that human services must not be cut and that federal stimulus funds will greatly improve the Oregon economy.
Take a stand. Participate. Please make those calls & send those email messages today.
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For generations, my family has dealt with the issue of elder care by living in multigenerational households. We have shared homes, lived in separate households near to each other, and, best of all, shared properties with accessory dwellings for our elders. Each generation has derived some benefit from our living arrangements: onsite childcare and dog-sitting for the working folks and safety and companionship for our elders. I am working on a business plan to help families explore the options for multigenerational living but to anyone interested in learning more, I recommend Sharon Niederhaus Graham's "Together Again". She has a website at www.togetheragainbook.com.
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Shipping inconvenient elderly obligations to specialized facilities is a luxury. Historically and Prehistorically, the elderly were cared for by the family not companies or governments.
We have come a long way... from what worked for years: Keeping elderly loved ones close to their families.
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As a newly official senior -- I activated my Medicare card this month -- I find it incomprehensible that the Governor and the Legislature would turn their backs on us, add thousands to the unemployment rolls and effectively refuse hundreds of millions of federal dollars by emasculating the community-based care program as the latest proposed budget does. Yes there must be cuts, but these seem both heartless and foolish. Oregon is not Texas or South Carolina
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A comment about the effect of caring for an elder on the young children of the household. My grandfather came to live with us when I was 12 and lived there for 10 more years untill he died. My mother did all the caregiving. Big resentment can come up for the children. They see their parent being stressed, having all this new caregiving work, losing their parents time and attention. Also - while the conversation may be uncomfortable - you need to have a big conversation BEFORE the elder moves in about expectations, where will the elder spend most of their time, how will dinners go, how each group can have their own private time. We were a casual, noisy young family with 2 boys and a girl. Suddenly Grandpa was always there and us kids were expected to be on "grandparent-visiting" best behavior all the time. No more kid jokes, laughing, goofy around, questionable language. It suddenly got very formal and lots of tension between my mom, my grandfather and us. I frankly ended up hating him for many years due to the change he "caused" in our house and my childhood and mostly the stress it put on my Mom.
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Concerning the Economy and caring for your elder family member, I think it would make sense to mention on this program - In Home Wakes - and the importance of this rising movement towards bringing funerals back to the home. It brings incredible closure to the process of death and dying of a family memeber, and it saves thousands of dollars. For more information about this go to: http://www.spiraloflife.org/home.html I'm a psychotherapist and have talked with Pat Sweeney and it is truly amazing what is happening with legislation regarding blocking this movement towards a more organic, economic dying process. If not on this show, I think it would be invaluable to bring up this topic in a future conversation, because this is happening right now in Oregon.
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If Medicaid makes the choice for the people families loss where a member goes. One in 10 families actially have care from families member. Most of us no longer live in "Walton Mountian anymore" people really need to look at putting into plans to provide care for others selfs. Plus, this makes it so, people get the skills needed to care for others.
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Hey ~
I'm just a daughter of an 82 year old Mom who lives at home with I and my family. Mom receives Medicare and a supplemental program that covers her medical needs.
We provide for her emotional and social needs.
Our family chose to have all three generations living in our home together over a decade ago, and I cannot imagine the situation being any other way as her physical self slows and breaks down.
I hope that others who are making this choice out of an economic need include as part of that choice the enormous benefit it is to have an elder in the home.
Even though it is often a challenge to be witness to my mother's gradual deterioration, we as a family are the caregivers - not just those of us who are younger in service of our elder, but my Mom takes care of us in ways that cannot be quantified.
RE: the dire economic situation we are experiencing along with many others in the Portland area - the bounty or lack of money has little to do with the kind of care we give or receive in our home. AND I am forever thankful for my Mother's foresight in making certain her Medicare and supplemental insurance is in place to cover the basics of her medical care.
Bring the folks home. We all deserve it...
A.
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I am a researcher at OHSU and we are studying caregiver stress and ways to reduce it.
If you are caring for a loved one at home with dementia, we have an opportunity for you to receive free respite.
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You tell me more about this research study? Is it strictly mindfulness-based?
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Do your guests think one of the reasons legislators are targeting seniors for budget cuts because these individuals are bed-bound and unable to advocate for themselves and their own needs? This seems so unfair.
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My novel, WHERE RIVER TURNS TO SKY (HarperCollins), which is set in a small town in Oregon's Willamette Valley, tells the story of a handful of elders who move into a rundown mansion to avoid winding up in the local nursing home. Although my book is fiction, it portrays what we could do by intentionally building community...something we've lost in our society. It used to be the extended family provided a safety net for the elders, but those nets are almost nonexistent now. My novel explores one way of rebuilding this at a grassroots level. I've had many reader say they'd like to give this a try when they're older, as a way of taking care of themselves, surrounded by other people, living in community and mutual support. One reader called it her "geriatric fantasy."
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I am the director of an Adult Day Services program in the Portland area. I feel that the benefits of respite care are extremely important to caregiver (down time) and to the loved one. There are many studies that have been done re: the benefits of structure and socialization for seniors, especially if they have some form of dementia. We find our participants happier, more relaxed and easier to care for when they have had some time away. Unfortunately, many caregivers feel guilty that they can't do it all themselves...however the benefits of a quality day services program can be a win/win situation....not least of all it can keep a family member living at home longer before a possible move to a care facility.
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My family had one grandparent who could have been cared for at home by family members (paternal grandmother), but who instead insisted she go to a retirement community/assisted care as she aged because she had lived through the stress of caring for her own mother and did not want to be a burden on her children. Meanwhile, my paternal grandfather is being cared for by his wife (30 years his junior), which is a great relief to his children who did not have good relationships with their phsycially and verbally-abusive father.
My maternal grandmother is being cared for by her certified paranoid scizophrenic daughter because she's agoraphobic herself and refused to move out of her condemnable house. (The carpets are all that holds you up from falling through the floor, and the refrigerator cannot be used because the floor has given way underneath and it sits at a 45-degree slant). She collects animals on her 10 acres that my aunt cares for. The only thing allowing them to live like that is that my maternal grandfather sends his daughter money each month to supplement her social security checks.
My maternal grandfather lives alone (but shouldn't) because he is stubborn. He doesn't bathe, he arranges for travel to Spain. He has money, but he has forgotten about or is unwilling to accept his physical limitations. He had a quintuple bypass, has a pacemaker, and is on six medications for blood pressure (including diuretics that make his feet swell). He is forgetful, but forgets he's forgetful. The other siblings aren't supportive of my mom moving him into a retirement community, and he still has the brain capacity to move himself out if he doesn't like it. But meanwhile, he's not bathing, he's not eating right, he's maybe taking his meds... and no one wants to have him move in because he is a proud and admitted bigot -- not someone you want to have sitting at your dinner table every night.
I only hope that my relationships with my parents are much better than their relationships with their parents have been. I would very much like to one day have them in my home. But for some people, I understand that this is not possible if the person who is aging is NOT doing so gracefuly or willingly.
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I think something missing from the conversation about "caring for seniors during this economic crisis" was the failure of people to plan for the future. Long-term care insurance was never discussed, but as we learned from the conversation the woman's mother certainly had the financial resources to have protected her need and now her daughter is getting paid by her mother rather than an insurance company and a drop in the stock market forced her to make a change. Any financial advisor who is looking out for your long term financial security should be advising you to see if long term care fits into your goals. I represent one of the best long term care insurance companies in America and I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to the conversation next time. Geoff Dorn 503 888 4825.
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very good post! keep up the good work.we need more good statements.
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Two issues in particular are of grave concern - one involves long-term care beds for seniors, and the other is a proposed "reform" to prescription drug benefits.But there was very enjoy other music. Lyrics For Music Lovers
When Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach took office, among his "Seniors' Initiatives", touted as his party's support of seniors in this province, was the promise of the creation of 600 new long-term care (nursing home) beds for seniors.
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Older adult should have the medical attention they needed with the assistance of their loved ones and health care provider, At this stage it is important that they feel a sense of fulfillment and reminisce on their success from the past. Assisting aging parents can be difficult, but it is a part of life that we all must attend to at some point, and one our own children will likely have to assist us in. You have to help them with money management, estate management, and hospice or residential care. The costs of medical care are insane payday loans if you don't have something in place. It's a part of life, and never the most pleasant, but I have to do it,they gave me life. Someday my own kids would do the same for me.
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Many area older adults live on fixed incomes, and rely on pension and savings that have been hard hit by this year’s economic contraction. As these seniors look to the future, they are realizing that staying in their own homes or apartments is the most realistic way for them to continue to make ends meet. But that realization includes challenges.
Transportation is one of the primary challenges for older adults to remain independent. Metropolitan Family Service has seen a major increase in requests for rides over the past two years. Please call 503.331.5913 to volunteer to drive an older adult to a needed appointment once or twice a week.