Elderplanning Testimonial

"Kate McGahan's skill, experience, and availability were invaluable to me in getting my recently widowed mother the care that she needed. My mother unrealistically wanted to continue living alone in her own home, and I did not have the wherewithall to convince her of the clear need for an assisted living arrangement in short driving distance of where I live.

Kate skillfully navigated Mom through a comprehensive three-hour interview to learn of her current situation, needs, and concerns. Kate's professional but relaxed, concerned, attentive manner helped my mother to relax and consider making significant changes that she never would have accepted directly from a family member, even if I had known what to propose and how to say it, which I did not. Kate built such a rapport that Mom asked after her in the days following the interview.

Kate's follow-up written assessment was clear, pointed, balanced, and invaluable to me when taking my mother to new doctors and her new residential care apartment near me in an adjacent state. Her timely, professional assistance illuminated for us the future path my mother needed, and elicited from my mother cooperation that I never would have gotten without Kate's help. Finding Kate was for me the single most important and valuable step in an urgent and critical process."

~George DeVore

Koldin on Pet Trusts

New York State enacted legislation which permits you to provide for your pets after your death. Under this law, you can set aside funds to be held in a Trust to maintain the health, welfare and comfort of your pets.

Under this Pet Trust law, you decide the amount of funds you want to set aside and designate someone (Trustee) to manage the funds and provide for your pets pursuant to the requirements you set forth in the Trust. The Trustee cannot use the funds for any purpose other than to care for your pets.

The Trust must end on the earlier of the death of your pets or within twenty-one years after the date of your death. You designate under the terms of the Trust who inherits the remaining balance of your Pet Trust at the time of termination.

A Pet Trust can be written as part of your Last Will and Testament or as part of the beneficiary provisions of your own Revocable or Irrevocable Living Trust.


Thank you to the Koldin Law Firm in Kirkville New York for this information

How to Find a Lost Person

Trying to Find A Lost Pension?

Contact the Social Security Administration to get your earning's record. Your former employer's federal employer identification number (EIN) will be on record. Then use the EIN to search for the company at www.freeerisa.com Also, check with the pension benefit guaranty corporation (www.pbgc.gov), the federal agency that insures corporate defined-benefit plans. Another place to check is the nonprofit pension Rights Center at www.pensionrights.org which helps employees and retirees understand and enforce their legal rights.

This from the AARP Bulletin
601 E. St. NW
Washington DC 20049

(Thank you to August 1, 2006 issue of Bottom Line Personal for reprinting.)

How to Help

Yewecado6B

A Brainstorm of Ways You Can Help Your Loved One at Home

· Regular Visitation
· Regular Phone Calls· Grocery Shopping
· Food Preparation
· Help with household chores
· Assist with mail/bills as needed
· Take out trash/recyclables, empty wastebaskets
· Water plants
· Mow the lawn, rake leaves, shovel snow
· Weed the garden
· Drop off/Pick up dry cleaning
· Fix small appliances/Handyman services
· Take the car for an oil change/gas/inspection
· Polish the silver
· Fill the birdfeeder (or provide one if there isn’t one!)
· Transportation to doctor’s appointments/social events/etc
· Cards/Notes from Children/Grandchildren
· Videotape Recorder w/videos of family, local & out of town
· Make computer literate for email, internet, games, correspondence
· Board Games
· Puzzles
· Organize a card or scrabble game w/friends
· Books & Books On Tape
· Create a music cassette of favorite/meaningful music
· Tape a church service if unable to attend and bring it home
· Send an audio letter if you live faraway
· Clip interesting articles from papers/magazines
· Organize family photos- create albums/collages/personalized calendars
· Create a scrapbook of memories “This is Your Life” and celebrate.
· Find any reason to celebrate something like “Happy Thursday!”
· Help write “The Book of My Life” for future generations
· Drop off magazines/periodicals/circulars of interest
· Take dictation of notes/letters and mail them
· Schedule your visit to watch a sporting event or video together
· Bring children to visit
· Bring pets to visit
· Call now and then with neighborhood gossip
· Take for a ride in the car
· Visit a zoo, park, mall, movie – wheelchairs are often provided
· Give a gift certificate for a manicure, facial, massage
· Give a gift certificate for long distance calling
· Create a coupon book as a gift with blanks for the fill-in of things you may not have considered
· Create a tradition of visiting at the same time each week to give something to look forward to
· Organize a social or church group to adopt seniors as secret pals and send cards, gifts, remembrances
· At gift-giving times, forgo the gifts and send a train/plane ticket to someone who wouldn’t normally be able to visit
· Set up a fish aquarium/bird cage and maintain
· Prepare a window garden
· Contact a local columnist to recognize the person for a special life achievement
· Help decorate for the holidays
· Create a visitation schedule/calendar so others know where the visitation gaps will be and plan accordingly (this is also a reminder how involved family and friends actually are)

· Have medical information handy so that visitors know what to do in case of emergency.

· Communicate with other family/friends/visitors when there is a need to be filled that comes up within the context of your visit.

· Stay alert, work together, support one another as a team would work together for the good of their mission. Help one another as needs arise so that you can continue giving to the issue(s) at hand.

· Take care of yourself.

Time to Laugh: Letter To Safe Harbour Middle School

This will warm your heart............... 
Just when you have lost faith in human kindness...

Someone who teaches at a Middle School in Safe Harbor, Florida forwarded the following letter.The letter was sent to the principal's office after the school had sponsored a luncheon for the elderly. An old lady received a new radio at the lunch as a door prize and was writing to say thank you.

"Dear Safe Harbor Middle School:

God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizen's luncheon.
I am 84 years old and live at the Safe Harbor Assisted Home for the Aged. All of my family has passed away. I am all alone now, and it's nice to know that someone is thinking of me. God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady. My roommate is 95 and always had her own radio, but before I received one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping. The other day her radio fell off the nightstand and broke into a lot of pieces. It was awful, and she was in tears. She asked if she could listen to mine, and I told her to kiss my ass. Thank you for giving me that opportunity.

Sincerely,
Edna Walters"

Old Age is Like a Bank Account

I Have Heard This Story Told Over and Over. Working in Admissions over the years, it becomes quite inspiring to think of this man. 

'A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual
description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .. it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. "It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2 . Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply. Trust God.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.'

~ Author Unknown

How To Choose a Nursing Home

There have been a number of incidents publicized lately regarding specific issues of deficiency and neglect in local nursing homes. How do you find a "good" nursing home? Here are some tips to get you started:

1) The New York State Department of Health offers a good list of questions. However, since New York is a highly-regulated state, many of these questions will have the same answers from nursing home to nursing home. Fortunately the baseline for acceptable care is much higher than in other parts of the country.

2) Don't simply take someone's word for it. You wouldn't purchase a home without seeing it first. Don't go to a nursing home without touring it first and asking questions. Supplement your questions with good observations. Pay attention to how clean the facility is; how well-groomed the residents are. Listen and observe how the staff treats the residents. What is your gut feeling? Would you entrust these people to care for your friend or relative? Is the atmosphere the right chemistry to offer a sense of personal security and comfort?

3) Talk to a number of actual residents and their families. This is their home and they should be able to give you an honest assessment and most would appreciate the opportunity to do so.

4) Review the recent Department of Health survey results which will indicate any deficiencies and plans of correction. The results must be made available to any visitor of any facility and will provide you a good indicator of the facility's weak areas.

5) Learn which nursing homes have specialized programs. The "best" facility may not be the best for you if you have Alzheimer's Disease and they don't provide such specialized care. Some nursing homes are strong in Rehabilitation, for example, or Dementia or Respiratory Care and some are strong in providing good old-fashioned long term care to those who don't require specialized services.

6) Finding the right nursing home can be a very emotional process. Try to have faith that going to a nursing home doesn't necessarily need to be the "end of the road". There have been countless people who, as nursing home residents, have learned skills, made friends and developed talents they never knew they had. It can be a growth experience for all if treated as an opportunity rather than as an obstacle.

7) Keep in mind that no matter what the track record is for a particular nursing home, there is someone who would never go back and there is someone who would never go anywhere else.

8) Try to plan ahead. Most people don't begin to explore nursing homes until they are in crisis, when it is impossible to make a clear decision. If you are in crisis, meet with a geriatric care manager or other professional who has firsthand experience and knowledge of each and every nursing home.

9) You may not be ready to put nursing homes on your list of things to familiarize yourself with, but make the most of an opportunity to do so. If you have a relative or friend in a nursing home, go visit them. It will be good for them and in the long run will be good for you, for any number of reasons!

Good times at the Home