Anonymous wrote:A while back I was flipping though a local giveaway magazine for seniors and noticed a bunch of ads for private consultants who help seniors figure out next steps in terms of … well, I’m not sure? Assisted living options? Anything they need advice on? What do these advisors do, exactly?
My 80something MIL is in bad shape and in a bad situation, at home when she shouldn’t be. She is extremely stubborn and refuses to make any changes. FIL is trying to convince her to move to a particular senior living setting — I think they’re independent apartments, so nothing drastic, and even then she is adamantly against. I was wondering if a meeting with someone knowledgeable could help, in terms of both laying out a full array of possibilities and also turning the choice into less of a “these are interventions because you’re falling apart” kind of thing and more of a “ooh, look at these interesting possibilities that may offer you something you want!” kind of thing. But not sure whether the fit is right between the situation and those types of advisors. Any advice welcome! And recommendations in MoCo would be great too, if you know of someone good. Thanks!
My dad died too quickly for us to really use this kind of service, but my sense is that getting help from someone who knows how care really works for people like your MIl in your area now would be very helpful. Even if you have good general knowledge about how care is supposed to work, the actual level of various services available in your area might be a lot different from what you think.
My impression is that the best care advisors are former nonprofit nursing home social workers who got fed up and went independent.
I would try talking to the social workers at high-end, nonprofit nursing homes and ask them for names.
If you or your mom are in any high-end charities with a lot of rich old members, I’d look to see if any senior care advisors have little ads in the newsletters or speak at the luncheons and call those.
If you see senior care advisers advertised in a regular newspaper, chances are that those are senior care brokers. Basically, travel agents for nursing homes. Some might know what they’re talking about and provide mildly conflicted but good advice, but a lot may just be too young and too far away from the care world to be helpful.