Preparing for Transitions Part 1: Be Proactive, with Daphne Davis

*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 provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. And welcome to everyone to answers for elders radio. And we are here on the month of May, as the spring is sprung and things are starting to open up and as a result, we have families going through a lot of new transitions because things are opening and we are blessed to have a wonderful guest who we love to have back every month, and that’s a Wonderful Daphne Davis from pinnacle senior placements. Welcome back, dash me. Hello everyone. I’m glad you’re here because one of the things it’s so interesting. Daphne, I am excited about this hour because I know we’ve talked a lot about you know, when families are in the thrones of you know, how do you make that transition? But a lot of families are just starting to think about, you know, what do we do next or how do we process this whole, you know, beginness transition, and so I would love to spend the hour today talking to you a little bit about how do we do that and how do we prepare for the eventual transition? But the first thing I would say is take a deep breath and take one step at a dime. Don’t let it overwhelm you. When you’re thinking about having a parent or or both your parents moving from a home that they’ve lived in for forty years, it can be a little damping. This is also a good time to remind everyone that talking about this transition and and the possibility of it is better to do sooner than later. I would say a lot of our clients that I work with right now, it’s not unusual for it to be a six months plus process before an actual decision is made. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it is much longer. Can be a couple years and I hear back from someone. So I applaud you when you reach out and get information before there’s an emergency, before they have to throw in the emotional piece of making big decisions. So take a deep breath, don’t get overwhelmed and start early. Over my dream, and you know, that’s the thing. I think that the average individual thinks that, oh well, I’ll call Daphne when it’s time to make the move. That’s not the right time and right time to call Daphne is way before, because one of the things that families that you may not realize is that there’s a lot of pieces that have to be put in place. And of course the first is, you know, what’s seasable right now financially, mom, what is the equal situations? Tell us a little bit about what needs to happen. Definitely early. I would agree with you, Susan, that that is probably the first thing to look at is to make sure that you have your legal documents in order. And when I say legal documents, I’m talking about a power of attorney for both finances and for medical decisions. They’re both very important in the state of Washington, for sure. The only day I can really talk about those are important. Maybe having conversations a bottle will. It’s an appropriate time to have that conversation. Who is the executor to that? Well, how are things going to be handled? Because it’s not that the will and the things post deaths are eminent now, but it’s it’s important to have input from people who are the decisionmakers while they still can make those decisions, and so it’s it’s an important thing to look at the holistic piece. The other things are there’s a form called upholst form. It’s P as in Paul Ol S, t is in Tom and it stands for physicians order of life, sustaining treatment, and this is a bright, bright blind green, pull resident green form of Washington. You can’t miss it and if you have been at a skilled nursing or at a hospital, you probably have one already. This is a document that will help you decide what do I want to happen for me and at the end of my life or when I’m having to make medical decisions. That helps your doctors and helps your power of attorney know what your wishes are in terms of a DNR, in terms of antibiotics, artificial feeding. There’s four areas of it that need to be discussed and talked about and it has to be done with your doctor. This post form is not implemented until your doctor has signed it with you, and so that’s an important piece to have. This is a form that many kinds. You’ll hear senior centers or different education opportunities tell you to keep this on the side of your refrigerator or on the door underneath your sink inside so that emt’s can find it easily to know how to help you if you have an emergency of medical emergency at home, but that’s another document that you want to be looking at. Moving into the finances, that’s something that you should definitely do before you’re even thinking about moving. And I say that because in the state of Washington there is a five year look back on your financial decisions that you’ve made. Now, I’m not a financial guru, I’m not a Medicaid you’re through, but I do know enough in the twenty one years and we doing this job to know don’t put this off. I feel very strongly about being able to maximize everyone’s a state in terms of having the maximum bind power and also to reach the values that you as an individual have, and the only way to do that is for conversation with people who can help guide you with your finances. And I think the other thing too, is is that, you know, I was just talking to a family that mom had kept moving, you know, renting and moving when they raised the rent and that kept moving, ship getting older, and so the family went together and they purchased a condominium for her and then they turned around and put everything in her name, obviously because it was but now they’re going to inherit the CONDO. Now they’re going to have to sell the CONDO. The family obviously needs the fund. So they’re right. There is an legal issue that needs to be addressed in all of those things. When you realize, Jeffie, you know, all the things that families do and put their right foot forward, but they don’t understand the legal implications that that could be perceived in paperwork like it was a gift back or money back, and that would be a problem. So even a family member, if you’ve done that, something like that, to you know, buy property or do even to you know, buy you know something and then take it back, that has to be documented and and certainly you know there’s some gray areas in there, of course, but you know, those are the things. I think that’s important and and you know the reason why when you say the state of Washington looks back is we never know what kind of health care costs are going to occur in the future and it’s amazing. My Mom’s had probably close to three Hundredzero when she was in her mid eight days or you know, left to live on. We thought that’d be plenty. Well, she ran out of money because assisted living in her cost of care is got to be close to tenzero. A month by the time we were there, and it goes fast, and so understanding those processes up front in advance, we have to be obviously expect the best, but certainly prepare for things that could happen. That’s exactly right. That brings me to the our next ideas and thoughts that need to happen during this transition time, and that’s to really think about what do you want, as you are the the other the senior where do you want to live? How much risk do you want to take in terms of honoring your bodies potential limitations, your mind’s potential limitations, and really having conversation about how do I want to use my energy that I have each day, as that will guide you in terms of how do I have to be fiscally responsible with my state? I want to encourage everyone. Whether you have two nickels to rub together or twenty two nickels to run together, it does not matter. You need to talk to someone to help you with these financial decisions, and elder law attorney can sometimes be the best place to start. If you don’t have a financial planner, that that’s fine. We just need to have some information about what should I do with my two nickels or my twenty two nickels, doesn’t matter. Be Responsible and proactive. Well, I think the other thing, just from a practical side. You know, I’m just going to bring whoever your executor is going to be and your poverttorney is going to be number one. They need to know your passwords to bank accounts. They need to know where your safety deposit boxes are. They need to make sure that they are you know, that they’re accessible, that you know they know where the keys are, they know where things are, because those things are very difficult to resurrect. You know, I had somebody here mother passed away and she’ve gotten her social security check but she didn’t have the pin number on the Debo card and so she couldn’t access those funds, which is crazy. So those are little things that we all need to think about as we as we move forward in the world, to say, you know, how do we want to lay those things out, because you could be perfectly healthy today, but there’s all different types of situations. So so in this segment, this is a time to bring Daphne in and I want to talk about in the next segment of how do you specifically prepare families for this and how where you get involved. But before then, obviously, in this early stage, that’s the time to call Dask me, isn’t it? Yeah, it is. Just ask the questions of you know. What about this? What about this? What about this? You know, because your story is unique. There are no two stories alike and that’s why I believe it’s so important to work with an elder care advisor so that they can know the breath of the options that you have based on your unique story. Everyone is different. I will plug you know the other care attorney to housing, excuse me, the elder law attorneys, that they can help you know things that you do not know in the first conversation is always complimentary and just get your feet wet and know what should I be thinking about? And I look forward to telling you how I can actually help you in terms of pinnacle services, in all of our housing advices, what we can do for you, and obviously I serve all of western Washington for the most part. Is that correct? Do we do? There are six people that are on the pinnacle team now and we are from intense purposes, from ANACORDA’s down to Olympia, where kind of or over to North Bend and out to Squim so we have people that are specialists in each one of those areas and so we’re here to help you as best that we can. Great. So how do we reach you? You reach us an eight hundred and fifty five, seven, three four, one thousand five hundred. Again, our phone number is eight hundred and fifty five, seven, three four, one thousand five hundred, and always feel free to go to our website as well. You can learn a lot there, and that’s at pinnacle senior placements, with an s at the incom okay, and we’re going to talk a lot about day how she’s going to help your family right utter. That the preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placementscom