The Benefits of Hiring a Care Manager

Written by Steve Miskovic, MSW, LCSW, CMC.  Care Choice Care Management, Director of Marketing and Owner

Do you need someone to assist navigating the health care or medical maze? 

Care managers do this!  We work to make the complicated less confusing while helping individuals, families, and caregivers make informed decisions about care. We coordinate what is needed to maintain or improve one’s quality of life.

What is Care Management?

Care management is a holistic, client-centered approach to planning with and caring for aging adults, those with disabilities or facing ongoing health or behavioral health challenges. We help adults navigate the challenges of aging and disability to make positive, informed decisions and plans. A care manager’s guidance leads people to the actions and decisions that ensure quality care and an optimal life for themselves or those they love, thus reducing worry, stress, and time off of work for family caregivers.

Care managers identify the best options for the person by assessing or evaluating the situation. We factor in what goals the individual has along with input from family and caregivers. Care managers DO NOT WORK IN A VACUUM! We look at a person’s whole picture including but not limited to:  

• Advocacy – Going to medical appointments, assisting with applications for benefits
• Social & Psychological Well-Being – Assessing social engagement and mental health to ensure those needs are addressed.  For example, coordinating attendance at cultural programs or religious services, meeting friends for lunch or finding the right counselor or other mental health professional
• Crisis Management –  [Fun fact (not really fun): most people reach out to a care manager during a crisis] Jumping in to resolve the immediate crisis and bring stability to the situation
• Housing Options – What best meets the current and future needs?  Could you stay in your own home with modifications or other support?  Do you need to look at options in independent, assisted or skilled nursing communities?
• Legal Resources – Help connect with an elder law attorney, discuss health care decision making; for example, assisting people with creating an advance directive and health care power of attorney
• Finances – Reviewing the cost of care options to better understand what a person’s  resources can afford. Many times people underestimate how far their funds will go or assume that Medicare pays for everything. 
• Advanced Planning – Looking at current needs AND planning for the future. Ideally care managers want to meet before a crisis to help create a plan that helps minimize or mitigate emergencies, like unnecessary trips to the emergency department or prematurely moving from your home

A care manager’s role is to focus on the whole person and their environment.  We do this by looking at the above areas and others as necessary, and creating a plan of care that incorporates goals and needs. It is from that point the care manager will put that plan into action and begin taking the necessary next steps.  Working with the individual and that person’s “team” is vital to the success of any plan of care.  

How a Care Manager Provider Benefits the Family

Care Managers are usually contacted by a family member, usually an adult child.  However, the majority of all callers are female (daughter, daughter-in-law, wife).  See the trend?  Yup, women are often the caregivers or point person to find help.  Regardless of who calls, the overall theme is the same: They need HELP.  Here are a few examples of how a care manager can HELP families and caregivers:

• Time Savers:  What do I mean?  Family caregivers often find themselves as the “Doers” and not so much a family member.  When you visit or see your relatives, do you find yourself setting up medications, running errands, going to appointments, grocery shopping, and so on?  How much time were you able to spend having a conversation versus going over the pill planner or calendar for the next week’s appointments?  
  • Care managers can take on all these responsibilities or just some of them.  We can take the person to the doctor, set-up grocery delivery or coordinate a service to take the person, set up medications (please ask the care manager or company if they are insured for this) and coordinate any other service or need.
• Cost Savings: Time is money, so because care managers know the resources and are the experts in the field, we can do in a couple of hours what may take days or parts of days for a family member to do.  This is especially true when the family member works or has other responsibilities like their own family, AKA the Sandwich Generation.
• Avoid Family Conflict:  Most family members have the best of intentions, but sometimes family drama or disagreements can get in the way of who truly matters: the individual or client. The care manager can help prioritize next steps, provide guidance, answer questions and provide support.  

Caregiving is not easy and it takes a village!  Help is hard to ask for and even harder to accept at times.  So when a care manager can help a family member be a family member instead of a “DOER”, that is one of the biggest rewards we have.

 

Care Management and Your Loved One

Working with a care manager has numerous benefits for both the individual and the family/caregivers.  We work with everyone to create a plan that is solution-focused, but also addresses the individuality of the person.  Planning for current and future needs are paramount to a good care management plan and should be discussed and re-evaluated on a regular basis.  

As stated earlier, “It Takes a Village”, but that village needs someone to manage all the moving pieces and this is where care managers excel. 

 

About Care Choice STL

Our highly experienced staff of care managers will advocate and act on your behalf. We will be with you every step of the way to plot a course along the continuum of services most appropriate to your needs. We work to connect you with services and resources, and to provide you with strategies and solutions to make informed decisions about your care.

About Senior Learning Institute ®   

About Senior Learning Institute ®
The Senior Learning Institute ® (SLI) is dedicated to providing “the truth about everything senior” to older adults and their families. Through free monthly educational seminars held across the St. Louis area, SLI connects seniors and their advocates with trusted, unbiased information to support informed decision-making.

SLI is proud to partner with a select group of vetted businesses and organizations that share our mission of serving the senior community. These partnerships allow us to provide valuable resources and advocacy, ensuring seniors have access to expert guidance and services when they need it most. By bringing together industry leaders, municipalities, and educational resources, SLI empowers older adults to navigate life transitions with confidence and ease.