A Legal MinuteCaring for aging parents
Why Planning Ahead Saves Stress in Senior Care
The short answer
Scott Fisher says transitions are easier when families can choose what long-term care looks like before a crisis. Families often call him only after one, though in most cases problems were already building. He says events like a dementia diagnosis, sudden illness such as delirium, a fall, a fracture or surgery usually drive a placement.
From the full episode When Aging Parents Need More Support: Resources Families Should Know About (21:03).
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Transcript
Too often they call me when a crisis has occurred. Something critical has gone down. A family member has had a change in health care condition, a hospitalization, a fall, a break — something significant has happened. And so now it propels them into action.
When you look at the situation in most cases in families, these sudden events don't happen in a vacuum. There's been things happening along the way before the crisis occurs. So we really talked to people a lot about reaching them before the crisis and having an expert or somebody come in and take a look at the situation.
It's always easier to make these transitions when there isn't a crisis, and when families get to pick what they would like their long-term care to look like, as opposed to now having something happen to them once an event has happened. And so those things might include, like, a diagnosis of dementia, maybe some sudden acute onset of illness like delirium, where there's been a fall, a fracture, a surgery. And those things are usually what drives, unfortunately, the placement, and families have to accept fact that their loved one can't live at home any longer.
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