The Completely Intolerable Situation in Elder Care

When I first started looking for a good quality elder care for my intern 85-year-old mother, you could say I was optimistic. My mother had a long-term care insurance policy, and it required that there should be a professional geriatric care manager who actively managed her case. He was supposed to look at what her needs for every month were, and build and maintain a plan for her.

But it didn't really work out well. The manager kept sending home health aides who were all quite unqualified. They were either unqualified or downright unwilling to work. One would act like those babysitters in those old Tom and Jerry cartoons. She bring her phone with her, hook it to our Wi-Fi, and then get on Skype with her boyfriend for hours. She just wouldn't even look at my mother for hours.

Before there were geriatric or elder care managers that you had to go through, you only had to worry about finding good aides. These days, you have to worry about finding good geriatric care managers as well. No state unit has any licensing requirements for geriatric care managers. Anyone who calls himself one can be one. And why wouldn't they call themselves one – it pays $100 an hour, at least.

But that's not at all that you need. A geriatric care manager really needs expertise. He's your go-between. He looks at your requirements and then talks on an equal footing with the medical, financial and legal professionals to get your parents the care they need.

But it isn't just incompetent care that you have to worry about. Not infrequently, these elder care managers turn out to have criminal intent as well. You see, criminals everywhere know that elderly people are an easy target.

When you read about telemarketing  fraud, often, you hear that these people call from other countries and they aim for the elderly. They know that the elderly often live on their own, that they have their retirement funds, and that they're a bit anxious about how there isn't any income coming in anymore. They're completely open to anyone who says that they have a moneymaking scheme in mind.

Frauds and thieves are often attracted to any way they can get close to an elderly person and speak to him from a position of trust. They love the elderly care manager job because they get to speak to the elderly on a regular basis, win their trust and then get them to invest money in something or give the money for something.

Before you allow an elderly care manager in your home, do do a background check. Make sure that they are members of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers.