Dealing with aging parents can present many challenges. The experience of children with aging parents can range from providing adequate care, balancing personal and professional life while tending to the needs of their parents, and making the right decisions regarding the health of their parents.

Such problems can be expounded, when children live out of town. As a result, Aging Life Care Professionals (ALCPs), previously known as Geriatric Care Managers, are a win-win solution for meetings the needs of parents and children.

ALCPs are specialists that are members of the Aging Life Care Association (ALCA) https://www.aginglifecare.org/,  ALCPs are required to obtain at least one of four approved professional certifications and adhere to the organization’s ethics and standards of practice and work under the direction of an attorney. Some of the ALCA’s ethics are as follows:

• Integrity
• Loyalty and Responsibility
• Promoting Benefit and Avoiding Harm
• Respect for Clients’ Rights and Dignity
• Justice

Further, a ALCP can provide assistance to out of town children with finding unknown in-home services and coordinating the move of an elderly parent to a different facility, making the transition smooth. Also, since ALCPs are not seen as adversarial by health care providers, ALCPs are able to work with these entities more effectively, resulting in more cooperation from health care providers.

Finally, ALCPs can evaluate a parent’s mental health, make recommendations, and mediate familial conflicts over the parent’s care. Such assistance, provides an additional layer of aid to children with an elderly parent, and provide all of the care that children would normally provide, but can’t, due to various reasons (e.g., inability, time conflicts, and distance).  

If you are the child of aging parents dealing with numerous obligations that make providing care to a parent difficult, consider hiring an ALCP, to make life a little easier.

At the Elder Law Center of Kirson & Fuller, we often recommend ALCPs to assist elders and their families when the care needs overwhelm the children, there is an only child managing all the care and/or children live out of town.  We are here to help you navigate the legal needs of elders, please contact us today at 407-422-3017 to schedule a consultation with one of our experienced attorneys.

Sources

Richard A. Courtney, For Life-Care Planning, Consider Hiring A Geriatric Care Manager, Trial, April 2009, at 32

• 22:9.Choosing to remain at home—Geriatric care management, 15 Fla. Prac., Elder Law § 22:9 (2020-2021 ed.)
• 1:24.Referrals from attorney to other professionals—Geriatric care managers and “paper children”, 14 Fla. Prac., Elder Law § 1:24 (2020-2021 ed.)

What Happened to CareManager.org – Medical Alert Buyer’s Guide

Certification and Professional Conduct (aginglifecare.org)