Caregiver Resources, with Jim Koewler

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is by Mr Jim Koewler, elder law and special needs attorney, helping and protecting those who need long term care, and welcome everyone back to the answers for elders podcast network with Mr Jim Koewler, attorney at law in the state of Ohio, at www dot protecting seniors.com. And certainly if you’re outside of the state of Ohio, please go to www dot naela dot org and you will find someone comparable in your state and we are so blessed to have Jim with us for this segment. As so many of us, I think the latest statistic I’ve heard is especially due to the onset of the pandemic and different things like that, that they’re over a hundred and fifty million family caregivers out there in the state of Washington. Are Not State of Washington the USA Today, and so certainly it’s something that everybody knows a caregiver if you were not one, and we just want to spend the time that we have in this segment talking about resources directly for caregivers and Jim, welcome back to the show. Thank you. I’m glad you remind me of the state of Ohio. Ocasually, I have been a state of confusion. I’m not sure. You are not you are not well. I’m I am very this is just a topic that’s obviously very near and dear to me because I was a family caregiver for my mom and I always talk about the fact that, you know, being a caregiver, it was, you know, one of my the sayings that I’ve coined. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life because it was confusing, it was daunting, it was frustrating, it was tiring, it was exhausting, it was overwhelming. I felt like a deer in the headlights ninety percent of the time of what am I going to do next, because the resources were very confusing and and but here’s the other side of that is it was also my greatest privilege and having that privilege to be there for my mom at the end of her life. You know, yes, I am so honored to have had that opportunity, but it also showed me, you know, for myself, looking back in it, in many ways it was my finest time. It was the time that I had to rise up to be the big girl and and put my big girl panties on and deal with things at one step at a time, and I know that personally, I grew tenfold through the experience. So with that, I’m forever grateful for that experience. Yeah, I’ve taking care of my mom and obviously for you, that works with families all the time. You probably run into a lot of people like me do not. Yeah, and and we’re going to talk about resources to day. That will make it easier. Yeah, nothing is going to make it easy. No, period. Okay, we’ll talk about things that can lighten the load, but nothing’s going to make the difficulty go away completely, not even take no, unfortunately. That is correct. And but you know, there even if you’re not the hands on caregiver, okay, it’s still hard. If someone else stands on caregiver, Home Care Company and assisted living, a memory care and using home, you still have to worry about your loved one and be the advocate for them, and that’s that’s still difficult. Well, and it’s also because you don’t necessarily know what you don’t know. A lot of times you don’t know what questions to ask, what is appropriate, what is an appropriate so you get to a point where that piece and then, on top of it you might have all the responsibility of making decisions while that other person is to you know, taking full time care less, say your loved one is in memory care or assisted living or a skilled nursing facility. But then in the other side you’ve got family members that have all different opinions, and so, you know, we’ve talked about power of attorney and we talked about those types of things and you know, in my book, when I wrote my book, I wrote Chapter Two to the family members, because I think a lot of that has to do with your family making sure that you are if you are not the primary caregiver, quote unquote, and you are not the the it, then your job is to support a hundred percent of the decisions today make, and that’s the thing that I think that families can get along a lot better with that kind of a foundation. You are asking for Pie in the sky, unfortunately, you are correct. Yes, yes, absolutely so, Jim. How do you coach caregivers and family caregivers? You probably deal with a lot of them, almost more than you do the actual seniors. Yes, by my seniors generally, because they need care and they may be suffering from Alzheimer’s, beating if they’re not. They’re busy getting care. So most of my contact is with other family members. Probably about a third of the time it’s the spouse, but about two thirds of the time it’s a generation and occasionally two generations younger. Absolutely so I have, well, I’m an unusual elder law attorney. I have brought on care coordinators. I am now working with foreign nurses and I will put them against any care coordinators in the country. I am Super Duper lucky. But I still have have to do a lot of discussing with family members on how not to feel overwhelmed, or feel less overwhelmed anyway. So I try to make these resources available to them. But I also have these four nurses who are just the bomb. I I I am superlating. These women will work with me. They will now among the older law attorneys there’s maybe in Ohio eighty two a hundred serious out law attorneys. Of Friend of mine, WHO’s also one of the eighty two hundred, says there’s maybe hundred twenty. None of them is a big number. Every state it’s going to be different on that, I understand. The Mississippi there’s three. Okay, I talk to a guy in Mississippi there’s three OUTA law attorneys. Among those there are maybe three or four in each state tops that have care coordinators as part of the practice. Okay, California plas more because of its size. Mississippi has one the guy talk to, and so that’s even a very small number. And among those all put Roberta and Rebecca and our others and the other nurses against anybody. I just that just me being lucky, but they bring a lot to the table and they’re like the first ones. One of the ones I want to talk about the aging Life Care Association, what used to be called Jeri aft care managers. You can find them an aging life care dot org. They can be there both for the person who needs care and for the Care Giver Right they are trained professionals with experience, most of them, I will admit, our social workers and social workers are great, but it’s a different skill set than nurses well, and I think the other thing about a Jeriatric care manager is they have expertise and understanding a care plan and to understand a care plan and what is required in the care process. You don’t get that with anybody else and unless you’re lucky and that’s the beauty of having a care manager is they can say, Oh, well, you have Alzheimer’s in you know your stage two. Now the progression will happen likely this way. So they have the knowledge and experience to be able to help coach you and your family in the right process. Yes, they are wonderful. They are wonderful, and so you can find somebody like my Roberto or my rebecca through aging Life Care Dot Org. There’s a search funthing in there. They are even less numerous than out all attorneys. Okay, they are. And then, as mentioning out law attorneys, and you and I’ve talked about them many times before, there’s the national like caw wevotala attorneys. That’s the National Organization of lawyers like me. But keep in mind it’s easy to join at yourself on the list. You may write wills for a living, but you can still sit call yourself an outlaw attorney. If you want someone who deals in Long Term Care, look them up at Naila dot org and a elatorg. There’s a search function there, but then check the website to see if long term care is really high on their list. Right, okay. Then, in addition, the the people I talked about, the older attorneys who work with a care coordinator. They have their own an organization. I’m not part of yet. I got to finish my training before they’ll let me in. That’s a good thing, though. They’re picky. Yeah, that’s the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association, LCL LCPLFA DOT Org. Okay, goodness, it does not live itself to it pronunciation very, very well. You know lick a Bluefa or something like that. LCPLFA DOT Org. They also have a search function. Okay. That’s the lawyers who use care coordinators, and it’s not all of them, because I’m not there yet and there are some that are listed there that I’m not sure any more use care coordinators. Okay, but a friend of mine who is the care coordinator for a close out all our friend of mine is on the board there. She’s the social worker that works for a friend and she’s great. I love her. I went with a different skill set with the nurses, but she’s great. And then, of course there’s answers for elders, which is the great resources. I can’t imagine what I thought of that one. That, if you must, you’ve probably already know about answers for elders, but it’s there anyway. Remember it because it can help you out. But here’s the here’s the thing that maybe our listeners don’t understand. They may have, you know, found answers for alders podcast network because they saw something of yours. But we represent content and over sixty five areas of expertise under four major headings. So and it was really created by me because of the challenges that I had in navigating senior care, because an elder care is so interconnected and I think that’s one of the things that we hope that we can help bridge all of those resources together. So yeah, yeah, so, and then those are where you can get information or with any of the other organizations I mentioned, you can hire help. Okay, but I think everything else I’m going to talk about today is an information resource and many of them are web base, but not all of them. For Web based. Gen Worth has den Worth Insurance Company which does a lot longer care insurance. They have an on site on on the Internet web resource they called Care Scout. Sct M, a related company, has village plan. Those are both great resources for information for people who need care and for their career verse. And then there are some nonprofits. One of them is really close to my heart. The Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging is in in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, near Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic and university hospitals. That’s just that’s a location. They’re not tip any of them. Benjamin rose left in his will a bunch of money to start an institute on Aging a hundred and some years ago. who was thinking about aging a hundred some years ago other than been rove? Okay, amazing and they are great resource for people who live around them on the east side of Cleveland. But last summer, I think it was last summer, they got a huge grant for one of their programs. They’re now nationwide for free. They call it we care, because you do. Write this phone number down. Two one six three seven, three, one seven nine seven. I’ll repeat it. Two, one hundred and six, three and seventy three, one seven nine seven. You could call there. They will give you information, they will give you emotional support. It is a free program because this enormous grant and a friend of mine, Lisa Whitesman, runs the program. It’s awesome and it’s sad jim is that for the state of Ohio? Words nationwide, nationwide. That is amazing. Rant that she got allowed them to go nationwide. I wouldn’t we when I heard her say that at a meeting, my mouth fellow, but I asked Leadsa, please repeat that, Lisa, please repeat that. Is it any one? And I knew I want to talk about it. Answers for elders and this I finally get around to talking about them. Should bring them on this wonderful, sometimes wonderful. I will see if I can get least at a to log in sometime. We would love that. Okay. And then there’s also the all Summers Association. There’s a lot of support for character, with a lot of information. Twenty four seven. Yeah, and then, I don’t know. This is nation wide. Yeah, there’s one more that I don’t know. Is Nationwide, called pro seniors. Their information on the Internet is is very up of no matter where you are, but they’re in person stuff there. There based in Cincinnati. So I know quite a bit of you know the sure actually have a I’m on a panel with someone from pro seniors in March a cross couple institute PRRO se and IO RST RG. Okay, auto, great information there, but facetoface stuff is pably Ohio only. HMM. And there’s a lot of groups on facebook. We’ll talk about them another time because I know we’re running out of time here. Ha. Well, what we do want to tell each and every caregiver out there is that you are not alone and you know we are always here to, you know, provide support and Jim and I, I know, care a lot about you guys. Number one, taking care of yourself first, as hard as that is. Sometimes caregivers tend to put themselves last, and so you know, we hope with these resources you can set to new priorities and make your life a lot easier. State of Ohio residents, you have a friend to help you navigate long term care while protecting your assets. You can reach Jim at www dot protecting seniorscom or just email him at j Koewler afe. That’s j Taylor AFE at protecting Seniorscom.