What Are Aging Care Managers and How Can They Benefit Me?
Winter 2024 Issue
By Dr. Judi Shor, PharmD, CMC
Congratulations! By reading this article, you are about educate yourself on one of the best kept secrets in healthcare: The Aging Care Manager.
About fifty years ago, a group of aging care professionals in New York City founded the Greater New York Network for Aging in order to brainstorm ways to improve eldercare and professionally support one another. By 1985, this group had unified across the country into the National Association of Private Geriatric Care Managers with specialized conferences, a dedicated journal, continuing education, and interdisciplinary mentorships. This professional direction extended to private practices and eventually to non-profit and public entities. Members, experts in aging care, could further distinguish their practices through elite certification bodies, such as the National Academy of Certified Care Managers, that test and hold members to rigorous knowledge and ethical standards.
Today’s Care Managers are health and human services specialists with diverse educational backgrounds such as nursing, social work, psychology, clinical pharmacology, and speech pathology, with the hard-won expertise to handle aging-related challenges. Some practitioners are additionally certified in mediation and qualified to provide family coaching and conflict resolution. Aside from their expected expertise in aging issues, care managers also bring years of experience dealing with actual, real-life issues of aging and the resources and methods needed for their resolution.
To paraphrase BusinessWeek, “The geriatric care manager can be a godsend. This breed of specialist can assess a senior’s physical, social, and financial needs and stitch together a patchwork of services to address them.”
Today, the profession of Certified Care Manager has evolved to provide comprehensive, coordinated, A-to-Z care for both elder adults and non-seniors facing serious illness, physical disabilities, or developmental health challenges. With the client’s permission, family members and significant others are included in the process, with the client’s welfare of foremost importance. As care management is client-centered, its practice is prized as vitally flexible and highly efficient.
Of interest, Care Managers are often hired by adult children after recognizing the need for responsible oversight of Mom or Dad. The children may live remotely, have limited time due to their own family and job obligations, and/or lack expertise in dealing with the chronic care needs of the parent, particularly dementia-associated behaviors. “Sharing the Caring” through care management frees up more time for enjoyable family togetherness, underscoring what is really important among loved ones.
The Care Manager steps in to help with almost everything on a 24/7 basis, including medical system navigation, insurance and entitlement benefits, professional legal and financial referrals, cost-containment, accompaniment to medical appointments, housing/relocation assistance, community resource referrals, and emergencies involving hospitalization and urgent care visits. All the while, the client’s autonomy and optimal lifestyle are respectfully and safely prioritized. For those who wish to age in place, i.e., remain in their homes, care management is often just what the doctor ordered for keeping out of the emergency room and retaining one’s safest level of independence.
Family members have a knowledgeable and caring advocate in their Care Manager, with continuous open lines of communication providing priceless peace of mind. It is not surprising that Care Managers are often referred to as professional daughters and sons. For many experts in aging, this “boots on the ground” approach is a gratifying vocational match like no other.
Onboarding services include establishment of a plan of care to ensure that health and other needs are attended to in a continual and evolving manner. Screening tests are conducted for baseline and future appraisal, including cognitive, nutritional, fall risk, and socialization/engagement, as well as a thorough environmental home safety assessments. The Advance HealthCare Directive is completed and reviewed to comply with the client’s wishes. For those Care Managers in the health care professions, each client’s medications, lab work/imaging data, and medical histories are reviewed and monitored by this member of the client’s health care team.
The client is regularly evaluated and treated for current needs in addition to proactively anticipated issues, and always in a compassionate and high-quality manner. Family members are provided with experienced guidance, clarity, and support through regular updates on their loved ones. In fact, a Care Manager often serves as the one reliably constant bridge of communication among the family, medical providers, and other principals.
The “graying of America” is occurring as people live longer, including a large demographic of aging Boomers. This, along with the universal shortage of health care practitioners within an increasingly complex healthcare system, means an Aging Care Manager/Advocate in place for your loved one or yourself is a proven investment in future independence and quality of life.
Dr. Judi Shor, PharmD, CMC, is a 15-year CSA volunteer and CEO/Founder of a certified Senior Care Management practice.