Florida Elder Law Blog - A blog by Elder Law Associates, South Florida's premier elder law attorneys, who handle elder law, medicaid planning, guardianships and much, much more.
Ellen Morris, partner in Elder Law Associates, was recently quoted in an article by the Sun-Sentinel on the custody issues surrounding Michael Jackson's children.
Click here to read the article.Of course, Elder Law Associates provides a number of legal services to their clients, including Elder Law, Guardianship, Litigation and Estate Planning. Feel free to contact us at 561.750.3850 for more information.
Summertime brings a lot of family time. With family reunions, picnics, weddings and other events, long distant family members travel to gather together. It is also the perfect time to do some planning for the future. With parents aging and their health and lifestyles changing, children need to discuss some changes and decisions that will be needed in the near future. Parents should take the time to tell their children where important documents are kept and what their wishes are in the event of needing health care directives or experiencing long term care needs.
For those children who live away, the change they see in their parent's health and mental capacity may be alarming -- whereas siblings that have daily contact are working with these issues constantly. Here is the chance to compare notes and work together as a complete family in the long term care planning process.
For you parents who are well and active, this is a good time to hold a family meeting and share with your children your plan for long term care. Tell them where financial and legal documents are located. Review health care directives, living wills and long term care alternatives.
Experience has shown that even families that are close can quickly grow angry, jealous and hostile towards each other when an aging parent begins to need long term care. If a sibling moves into the parent's home, others can easily be suspicious of ulterior motives and fear losing their inheritance. On the other hand, the child providing the elder care becomes bitter and feels there is no support or help from siblings. Pre-need meetings for the purpose of making a plan, before eldercare becomes imminent, avoids these types of conflicts.
In its book, “The 4 Steps of Long Term Care Planning,” the National Care Planning Council provides guidelines and checklists for family planning meetings. Here's an excerpt from the book:
“The first step to holding a meeting, and perhaps the most difficult
one, is to get all interested persons together in one place at one time.
If it's a family gathering, perhaps a birthday, an anniversary or
another special event could be used as a way to get all to meet. Or
maybe even a special dinner might be an incentive.
The person conducting the meeting can be a parent or one person of
a couple who are doing their planning, years before the need for care
arises. A meeting on behalf of someone already receiving care or
needing care in the immediate future could be conducted by that
person or by a member of the family, by an adviser or a friend.
The agenda could be formal or informal. If you want a formal
agenda, we suggest using our care planning checklist as the agenda.
Copies of the care plan should be prepared prior to the meeting and
presented to those attending. Discussion is encouraged and we
recommend that the person in charge not dictate but encourage input from everyone.
After a thorough discussion of the issues and the presentation of the
solutions to the problems that will be encountered, there should be a
consensus of all attending to support the plan. If the plan needs to
be altered to meet everyone's expectations then by all means do so if
that can be done. But it is not always possible to please everyone so
there must sometimes be compromise.
The end of the meeting should consist of asking everyone present to
make his or her commitment to support the plan.
GET IT IN WRITING! All good intentions seem to be forgotten
with time. It may be years after this meeting before the long term
care plan begins. If there are vocal commitments to help with
transportation to doctors, give respite to the caregiver or other
commitments, write them down on the care agreement. You can
even have each person put a signature to his or her commitment if
you think that is important.”
“The 4 Steps of Long Term Care Planning ,” by The National Care Planning Council
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services states:
“No one wants to think about a time when they might need long-term care. So planning ahead for this possibility often gets put off. Most people first learn about long-term care when they or a loved one need care. Then their options are often limited by lack of information, the immediate need for services, and insufficient resources to pay for preferred services. Planning ahead allows you to have more control over your future”.
http://www.longtermcare.gov
"Whether you plan a formal meeting with an agenda or informally gather for a discussion, when the family is together make it a point to start the long term care planning process. There is a lot to learn and many decisions to make concerning finances, health issues and legal work. It may take research and a lot of time to put a plan together, but if everyone is involved it will work, and be worth it."
National Care Planning Council
Labels: Florida Elder Law Attorney, Florida Estate Planning
In an era when cutbacks in federal research dollars jeopardize the careers of many promising investigators working to understand how aging influences disease, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) has opened a new Florida Affiliate and has already attracted significant support from AvMed Health Plans.
"As a Florida-based and Florida-focused company, we are proud to support the work of AFAR Florida," said Ed Hannum, AvMed's president. "Our mission is very much aligned with the goals of AFAR Florida - that is, to improve the health and quality of life of Floridians. We believe aging research is essential to understanding the underlying causes of many diseases prevalent among seniors and we support AFAR's efforts to reduce the suffering and ultimately, the healthcare costs associated with these diseases."
Since its founding, AFAR has supported the science of healthier aging by providing critical start-up grants to promising young researchers, many of whose findings are dramatically changing both our understanding and the practice of medicine.
According to one AFAR Florida researcher, Dave Morgan, Ph.D., who directs the Alzheimer Research Laboratory and Basic Neuroscience Research at the University of South Florida in Tampa, "Almost without exception, AFAR picks the winners. AFAR identifies those scientists who are truly committed - the top 20% that will go on to have highly productive research careers. AFAR has found a special niche by maximizing the use of its funds, moving young scientists into academic research careers."
Another AFAR investigator, Chad A. Dickey, Ph.D., now an assistant professor at USF's Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute, stated, "AFAR is one of the few organizations that realizes that an emphasis on basic science is not only essential, but the key to building the foundation for the future. Many of today's advances in heart disease and cancer treatments were made possible because of an emphasis on basic science."
AFAR-supported investigators study a broad range of biomedical and clinical topics including the role of estrogen in the development of osteoporosis, the genetic factors associated with Alzheimer's disease, the effects of nutrition and exercise on the aging process, and much more.
To support this worthy charity, visit
www.afarfl.org, or contact Susan Lichtman, regional director, susan@afar.org, 305-598-1115.
Labels: Florida Elder Care, Florida Elder Law Attorney
