Protect your asset
Protect the family Caregiver in all cases. They need to remain strong in order to make the right decisions. If the Caregiver allows themselves to get distressed, if they let themselves get weakened, sick, or otherwise infirmed, the family loses the decision maker. A Northwestern Life insurance actuarial says that 65% of the caregivers pass away before the family member who needs the care.
Case In Point
The author of Elder Rage, or Take My Father..Please, Jacqueline Marcell, makes a definite point of caregiver vulnerability in her lectures. She asks her audience of over 200 caregivers how many of them have personally had a medical physical in the last 3 years. Maybe 10 people put their hands up. Jacqueline nods and says “Yup me too. I was so busy taking care of my parents for years, I never thought that the pressure was destroying me, until I found a lump in my breast!” As she places her hands over her breasts, she states “the girls had to go!” Then she pulls up the hair on the top of her head, lifts her wig up and down and says “and so did the hair!”
Jacqueline rammed her point home that caregivers really need to remain strong and remain alive and healthy to direct the care. If the caregiver is you, remember without YOU someone else will need to take over the care decisions. It is time to get back to being a spouse, a son or daughter. The professional caregiver gets to go home after 8 hours, do you or your loved one as a caregiver? Are you really doing your loved one any favors?
It’s time to attend an Elder Move Alliance program and find the options available.
Blessings, Stan McKenzie, OPA-C
A Change is Afoot Senior Housing Consultants, LLC