Pre-planning with Alzheimer’s, with Dan White

*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 a special presentation of answers for elders featuring evergreen was shelley and welcome back to answers for elders radio everyone. I’m here with Mr Dan White from evergreenwash shelley. He is the Northwest Territory Manager for Abby View Memorial Park and Dan, welcome to the program thank you, Susanne. I am to be here. I am glad we’re here talking about this topic today because September is Alzheimer’s month and obviously, you know, we’re there. The walk is happening, there’s different things going on in the community that’s really raising awareness of, you know, the importance in that the impact of Alzheimer’s diseasease and what’s happening to so many of our seniors and our families today that are just dealing with this process. And one of the things, obviously, is a consideration when somebody’s first diagnosed is preplanning. You know you’re going to die from the disease and it might happen quickly if usually, if it’s early onset, it happens fairly quickly. But what are some considerations? Obviously, and you know you’re going to pass away. What are some advice that you can provide us? Well, Susanne, for preplanning, there would be no better time than to do it while you weren’t actually diagnosed with the old timers, because you are fully cognizant of your wishes, which you want, and there’s no better time to be able to get things down on paper, to write really what your wishes are, to even start crafting your own biography or things that could be used to craft an obituary or right leg so that you have that but, more importantly, so that who ever would be coming on your behalf, right once you were to pass away, would really be able to honor your wishes and not have to guess or reach out or make assumptions. This way, you know what you want your life celebration to look like, right, and so at least to begin to do that and have that talk of a lifetime with your spouse or with your children or with someone else that’s a close friend who would be caring for you at your time of passing. And you know, that’s an interesting thing, because you know it’s hard to talk about these issues, and yet we’re all going to in our lives. We’re all going to have those time. That time it’s going to come to us in our lives and we’re going to have to do our families are going to have to deal with it, one word the other, and the fact that here you deal with this on their behalf. And and it’s a hard thing because once you know the mind starts to deteriorate, you know the receptors start to shut off in a brain and and you know, as things progress with Alzheimer’s and dementia, you know it puts more stress on a family because you don’t necessarily know what your loved one would want or how they would want to be honored or what the different types of options are available to them, and I think that’s some things that that need to be discussed. Yesterday, is a matter of fact, I was in a workshop directly with Chris Louis from the Alzheimer’s Association, and she talked about the fact that when your first diagnosed, there’s two things that you need to do right now, and number one is make sure your legal paperwork is in order, because this is when you’re you’ve got the most cognizant abilities at this point to make sure that you appoint a pass you know, a power of attorney and all those things. But second of all, she said to pre plan and to get all of your paperwork done for your final wishes, and I think that is the key that you know, if there’s the two pieces that you need to take care of up front for you and potentially your family members, you know, as if they want to be with you, different ways in which you can do that. So that’s a some some things to really think about. So what are the kind of things, if you’re going to think about your final wishes? Yes, it’s a memorial. Yes, you want to know, obviously, if you want to be buried or cremated. But what are some kind of options for people when they’re preplanning? Well, specifically, what you just spoke to are things that you want to consider and that you can leave that and that can be your total preplanning. MMM. However, as we know, in this world, pricing continues to go up. Yes, it does, and whether you may pass tomorrow or you pass in twenty years from now, certainly the expenses of that, of their final wishes and burial will be more in twenty years from him. So, if you really want to take it to the next step, then that would be financially committing to doing and your final wishes, and so you can do that in a couple different ways. People will sometimes just simply buy a life insurance policy. But the thing with just buying a simple life insurance policy, as it’s just a savings account, it does not stop the rising caller, the rising cost from flowing. So it’s not sure to stop that. So you’ll have that amount of money but you’re going to be paying inflated prices when right actually occurs. That would probably be the same thing. and buying real estate it. You know, a lot of people say, well, my house will take care of all my final wishes. Well, in the meantime, those funeral cost is it true that it goes up like twenty five percent a year or something like that? Wellfe the the latest that I have as far as news about that and the study that’s been done, is at a average typical funeral today two thousand and seventeen, around seventy five hundred across the United States. Wow, they estimate that in two thousand that that will go in two thousand and thirty that’ll go to roughly over Nineteen Thou Holy Molly. So you can see what happens. We’ve always used a rule of thumb that a pretty much doubles every and if you sixty purchase, if you purchase at seventy five hundred dollars today, then you don’t pay the difference. If you die twenty years from now, it depending on how fifteen years from now. Yeah, at Evergreenwash Shelley, we offer what’s called a guaranteed trust, and so what that means is that we will guarantee our services and our merchandise that you purchase from us. Okay, those are guaranteed. But Susan, there are some things that we cannot guarantee and those would be third party provided expenses. So those would be things like sales tax at the time that we actually deliver the services, the cost of death certificates by the state. Those are currently twenty dollars eight. Ten years ago they were seven fifty. So it goes out and those are the minor that those are the minor things. Yeah, erect. But the fact that we would guarantee our services and a casket. So if you purchased a casket and it was seven thousand dollars today and in twenty years from now, when you actually pass away, it was then fifteen thousand. You know, you don’t pay that right, don’t get the casket that that we looked at. If they no longer make that casket, then you get one of comparable right value and material right. And then as far as the the overall, when you say, you know what about like the the plot, the that you purchase a plot, that’s that’s real estate. Obviously. Well, it’s real estate, but when you purchase, what you’re really purchasing is what’s called an interment right. Okay, right to be placed in the designated area. Okay, cemetery land belongs to the cemetery. Got It. Whenever anybody purchases a grave they’re purchasing the right to be there and they will stay there. They own that, they own that space and that also stops the clock from atom rising costs. So I mean, I mean I can give you an example of that. Currently at Abbey View Memorial Park we also collecting down the care but for a good portion of our graves there thirty one hundred dollars today. HMM. I’ve seen people who purchase them back in one thousand nineteen fifty eight, one thousand nineteen and sixty and they paid a little over one hundred dollars for a good that amazing. So you know that it does continue to go up. So it’s always good if you have the wherewithal to go ahead and take care of it financially now, because of the savings that that you will, yeah, have for your family and those who come to care for you. Right, right. And obviously there’s the grief factor of families that are reeling with a new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Dan and you know, to be able to have these conversations early kind of helps that goodbye happen when you’re you know, you know that there’s going to be some day that your loved one, if your mother, father, been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They’re they’re not going to know you by the time they pass away. They’re not going to know you know, be aware. So to have these conversations, I think, is really good overall for the healing of the family in grieving as well. It’s good for the healing of the family. It’s also good for the person who’s been diagnosed because I at least they know that it’s cared for. Praying or to being completely affected. Yeah, and it’s these and you know, I know that when that conversation is okay to be had in families and you can have those conversations because you know the inevitable is going to happen for all of us. But right you know, sometimes people don’t want to talk about the elephant in the room now and when you have the opportunity to do that and to say the things that you know need to be said, I think with your loved one is very important. It’s it will live on with you the rest of your days, I know, and that’s really what loves all about to be able to have those tough conversations right and bring out the elephant in the room right, because that really as being a son and having parent and San and knowing people who have gone through that it. It feels good from my standpoint knowing that I’m doing the right thing right and you know, given the statistics, we’ve mentioned this several times on the show, that one out of every three deaths in the state of Washington are related to Alzheimer’s disease. That is a huge factor and so we know that there’s a lot of families out there that are that have loved ones and Dan is here with some really powerful, wonderful advice and we’re really grateful for you. Thank you so much, Dan, for being on the program today. How do we reach you? Best way to reach me is to call us at Abbey View Memorial Park, and that’s four, two five for a three hundred and two five, five, five, or you can visit our facebook page at Abbey View Memorial Park, or you can send me an email at d white at was shellycom. Dan, as always, it’s a pleasure having you in the program. Thanks to Zanne. This has been a special presentation of answers for elders, featuring evergreen. Was Shelley. For more information about Evergreen was shelley. Their website is was shelleycom. That’s Wa shall ICOM.