Our geriatric care managers play an important role at Accredited Home Care. They help determine the specific needs of seniors who want to make the most of life.
What are Geriatric Care Managers?
Our in home care services in the Los Angeles (southern California) area are even better when combined with the help of geriatric care managers. The purpose of the geriatric care manager is to help you work out a care plan based on your needs. Some of the common tasks include:
- Assessment – Undoubtedly one of the most important steps of implementing a plan is a comprehensive geriatric assessment. The GCM can do a home assessment and help with bringing other professionals in to help assess other aspects.
- Financial Details – Whenever finances come into play it’s always a good idea to assess the situation. Not only will the GCM help to determine if there are financial needs but they are knowledgeable in financial assistance possibilities.
- Medication Watch – A geriatric care manager maintains contact with a client’s healthcare team in order to keep an eye on any complications with medication. The biggest job of the GCM is to know about and avoid problems when taking multiple medications. In other words, they manage a common problem referred to as polypharmacy.
- Create a Plan of Care – After a full assessment is created your geriatric care manager will put together a plan. This plan is a suggestion of how to make life more enjoyable while providing a safe environment.
5 Reasons Why You Want Geriatric Care Managers on Your Team
- Arrange Services – It is common that the GCM will help arrange services needed. This includes in home care, home health services, transportation, and more.
- Monitoring – Because a senior’s situation can change it’s important to keep an eye open for changes. The combination of a home caregiver and other members of the care team with a geriatric care manager to helps to avoid problems.
- Open Communications – It’s shown to put seniors at ease when they have someone to confide in about their needs and wants.
- Source of Information – The resources available to these professionals will help to be a constant source of information. As a result they will also have the ability to provide plenty of information about local resources too.
- Placement Options – Whenever there is a change in the overall health and safety of the senior it may be necessary to move. Geriatric care managers can help provide you guidance if a move is needed.
The geriatric care managers are a lot like the glue that holds your health care team together. In other words, they help open up lines of communication & understanding.
Creating Your Southern California Geriatric Care Team
We offer the services needed to help you design your home care team. If you live in our service area, we can make a difference in your life!
These are the members you may want to have as part of your in-home geriatric care team:
- Geriatric Care Manager
- Physician(s)
- In-home Health Care (if needed)
- Therapists
- Clergy (if desired)
In summary, your geriatric care team can include as many or few professionals as you feel comfortable with. In the end, it’s all about making choices that help instill more independence, happiness and safety for seniors.
How It Works
It is without a doubt that you can benefit from using a GCM to oversee your geriatric care team. These are the basic steps of putting the system in place.
- Your GCM will conduct an in person, one-on-one interview with the senior.
- A thorough geriatric care assessment will take place. However, during other assessments from other professionals you may begin to put parts of the plan into action.
- A full geriatric care plan will be suggested. The senior and their family (if they are included) can determine if they want to begin making the adjustments suggested.
- You will have help in making arrangements to begin the services you desire.
- Continuous communication will help monitor the senior.
- Any changes that are needed throughout the services will be made as needed.
- The geriatric care team’s involvement should make a difference in the life of the senior and their family.
Let’s put this plan in action together. The importance of using home care and geriatric care managers together as part of your home care team cannot be understated.
Photo by Nateone
