As part of celebrating the month of May as Aging Life Care Month, we would like help educate our visitors on what it is that Aging Life Care Professionals, also known as Geriatric Care Managers, do to help aging persons and their involved family members to plan for care and solve aging challenges.
The work that we do for our clients is holistic and varied every day. Each client that we work with has a unique plan of care and so we are focused on the detailed care for each client. A typical day may look like the this:
6:00 a.m. Wake Up, Exercise, Breakfast
7:30 a.m. Begin work, review tasks on our computer, read messages from clients and their families, make notes in our professional software, prepare reports that are needed during the day for our work with families, physician’s, attorneys, financial planners, or in-home care companies, make phone calls, and send emails and text messages.
9:00 a.m. – Received an urgent message from Mrs. R’s daughter that Mrs. R was on her way to the Emergency Department. Called her daughter and let her know that I was on my way to meet Mrs. R at the ED.
9:30 a.m. – Arrived at the ED and found Mrs. R. After being seen by physicians she was admitted to the hospital and a hip surgery was scheduled for the next morning. Made sure that Mrs. R was settled in her room and Facetime connected her and her daughter to touch base. Daughter let me know that she would drive overnight to be there in time for the surgery the next morning. Left hospital.
11:00 a.m. – Drove to Mr. J’s home to pick him up for his 11:30 a.m. physician’s appointment. Met with doctor and Mr. J and discussed some medication changes that would need to be made. Drove Mr. J back to his home and went inside to make sure that everything was in order. Found a puddle of water coming from under the refrigerator. Called handyman to come over and figure out what was needed.
12:15 p.m. – Called Mr. J’s son from the car to update him on the status of the medication changes and gave him the handyman’s phone number to follow up and they will work together on solving the refrigerator situation.
12:30 p.m. – Updated professional software with notes about doctor’s visit, medication changes, handyman requests, and notes about conversation with son while eating sandwich.
1:00 p.m. – Faxed updated medication list for Mrs. R to in-home care agency for their updated records. Called Mrs. P to make sure that she would be ready for the visit from me and the elder law attorney at her apartment at 2:00 p.m. She said that she had forgotten and would get ready now. Called elder law attorney to let him know that we were confirmed for 2:00 p.m. at Mrs. P’s apartment.
1:30 p.m. – Drove through Starbucks to pick up coffees for meeting with Mrs. P.
2:00 p.m. – Arrived at Mrs. Ps apartment and met with her and her elder law attorney where we worked on future care planning needs and documents to be updated to a new power of attorney due to the passing of her husband. Talked with her about what the future would look like and started the initial discussion about needing to create an updated plan since she was a solo ager.
3:30 p.m. – Updated professional software in the car, called three family members back who had requested a discussion. Sent a care plan report to one of the families.
4:00 p.m. – Stopped back at the hospital to check in on Mrs. R and see how she was handling the hospital admission. Her confusion was minimal, and she was in relatively good spirits despite facing surgery the next day. Let her know that I would be back before she went into surgery and reminded her that her daughter also planned to be there as well.
5:00 p.m. – Headed back to home office where I filled out more information in our professional software, replied to a couple more messages that came in for the day, and started preparing dinner.
7:30 p.m. – Received a phone call from the hospital that Mrs. R was confused and having difficulty getting comfortable. Drove to the hospital to see Mrs. R and help her calm and drift off to sleep. Texted daughter and heard she would be in town by 10:00 p.m. Asked nurses if the daughter could come to the hospital to be with mom when she arrived at 10:00 and they said it would be good for her to stay with her mom to help prevent further anxiety and confusion.
9:00 p.m. – Headed home, entered notes in software, rested and relaxed.
Our work is detailed and with the nature of who our clients are can change at a moment’s notice. Our focus is on making sure that each one of our clients is fully cared for and all involved family members are kept informed of all care needs.
If your family is working through aging transitions and challenges and you need a professional care manager to help maintain quality care, please reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help. Please give us a call at 850-894-6720 or email us at info@gcmsolutions.net. We’ll be happy to assist!
