1 mile west of the Chicago Premium Outlet Mall (800) 810 3100
By Rick Law of the multi-generation law firm of Law Elder Law.  Rick Law and his daughter Diana Law are Elder Law Estate Planning attorneys and senior advocates serving seniors, boomers, and their families in Aurora, Illinois just off of the I-88 tollway. Situations in which adult children provide care for their elderly parents often start out as very casual arrangements. Many times, the first stage involves the adult children picking up some groceries for the parents while doing their own shopping or driving the parents to an appointment. Maybe they start giving their parents some money, or maybe they are coming over and cooking and cleaning and checking in on their elderly parents. Then, all of a sudden, a parent is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the adult child has to quit his or her job or cut back hours because taking care of the parent has become a full-time job. Most adult children don’t think that they need to have a lawyer draft a personal care contract, but that is exactly what needs to happen if they are providing care for their parents. The elderly parent may well be writing checks to the caregiver child for gas, food, and time spent cleaning and doing laundry. However, in all likelihood, everything is getting commingled and no one is keeping records. The child is buying the parent’s groceries and his or her own groceries and both are paying some. If these individuals are not keeping adequate records, they run the risk of the caregiver being accused of elder abuse and the senior receiving the care being ineligible for Medicaid benefits. Sometimes the child will move in with the parents to better care for them, and sometimes it is easier to have the parents move into the child’s home. Often in these situations the child is appointed the power of attorney for property or at least the power of attorney for health care for the parent. In many cases the parents add that child to their bank accounts so the child can pay bills for them, including reimbursements to the child. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney from 2008-2016 by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By elder law attorney Rick Law, founder of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law, senior advocates and elder care lawyers in the Western Chicago suburb of Aurora, IL. Memory loss can manifest itself in many ways.  All too often, it is ignored by both the individual and their family members.  After all no one wants to face the threat of a debilitating illness, so the easy alternative is to ignore, or shift the blame. However, ignoring the problem can cause even more problems for the affected individual. A quick and accurate diagnosis may be instrumental in developing a plan to cope with a disease such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. When memory loss is first detected, one of the authors refers to this as “smoke in the kitchen.” In many cases, there literally is smoke in the kitchen because one of the most common dangers of memory loss is that the senior forgets and leaves a burner on or does not turn off the oven, and eventually starts a fire in the kitchen. Often seniors will either ignore their memory loss or will attempt to hide the behavior. In many cases, they are aware of their worsening condition but are afraid of being put in a nursing home. Once the memory loss has been detected by family or friends, the next stage is coming to the decision that the senior is “unsafe alone” and needs aid. It is not unusual for the senior to resist and fight to avoid assisted-living situations. While men seem to be more likely to fight back since control can be a bigger issue for a man facing Alzheimer’s, it is not out of the norm for women to plant their feet and say, “I am not leaving my home.” On the Alzheimer’s journey, the goal for many seniors and their families is to keep the seniors in their home (or in the home of an adult child) for as long as possible. This will typically necessitate the need for in-home care. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick Law, elder law and estate planning attorney at the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law, a multi-generation law firm serving seniors, boomers, and their families in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, IL. Alzheimer’s disease has no known cure, and managing its’ effects daily is a guessing game at best. The Alzheimer’s care journey can be long and scary and fraught with perils.  But a qualified and experienced elder law attorney may be able to assist in creating a care plan that is properly suited to all those involved. As the affected loved one’s care needs increase, your elder lawyer will understand how best to draft personal-care agreements and how to review assisted-living facility and nursing home contracts. The invisible obstacles that confront lawyers and their clients when drafting a personal-care agreement among family members and the hidden traps within many standard nursing home contracts are often revealed as the full extent of one’s diagnosis is revealed. The first stage of this journey, “memory loss ignored,” does not mean that loved ones are ignoring the senior’s memory loss. The person affected, as well as the loved ones, may be dismissing the memory loss as part of the aging process. An individual in the early stages of Alzheimer’s is often in good physical health, which makes it much easier to dismiss the occasional lapses in memory. The person feels good, looks good, and makes perfect sense most of the time. Affected loved ones are often on a similar journey. A woman received a phone call from her grandmother asking her how to make spaghetti. The grandmother had been making spaghetti for more than 50 years, but now her memory was failing her in simple daily tasks. The woman visited her grandmother and was shocked to see the messy condition of the home and her grandmother’s personal appearance. Even more surprising was her grandfather’s state of confusion. Clearly, both of them were in need of assistance, but neither one was willing to ask for help. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law.  Rick Law and his daughter and law partner Diana Law are senior advocates at the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law, a multi-generation law firm serving seniors and their families in Western Chicagoland. The Alzheimer’s care journey is an often misunderstood experience that is shared by many and simultaneously unique to every family that it affects.  It reaches far beyond just the individual who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Dementia.  Family and close friends are brought together and forced to cope as a loved one faces the trials of the Alzheimer’s care spectrum.  Thankfully we can begin to recognize the symptoms, and care for the affected. It often begins with memory loss ignored.  We’ve all been there or seen it in action.  When “Where did I put my glasses?” is uttered a few too many times to be mere forgetfulness.  Aging can be difficult.  It’s hard enough to accept your own body’s physical frailties, let alone face a devastating diagnosis of declining mental cognizance. This is why the second stage of memory loss masked/denied is so common…we try to compensate.  Part of it is lying to ourselves, not wanting to face the truth.  Part of it is fear of what others might think when they discover that silly old uncle Bob is more than just forgetful.  He may need help.  As the individual facing the diagnosis, you may not or feel that you need want help, and it may be difficult to accept. The problem is, you may be unsafe alone. Forgetting to turn the stove off, forgetting to take your medicine, the list goes on. There are a myriad of potential harmful side effects to memory loss that, in fact, can make it down right dangerous to continue living alone. Aid needed, but fights back. Another side effect of dementia can be misplaced anger, or general malaise accompanied by confusion.  If somebody you may not recognize is trying to take you to a place you don’t think you need to go, it’s entirely conceivable that you might become combative. My son-in-law tells a story about his grandfather who always made him promise “not to put him in a home…EVER”.  But there came a time when assisted living was required.  He just wasn’t safe at home by himself anymore, and a daily visit from a health practitioner became part of the routine, which led to a live-in assistant, and eventually, a nursing home was required. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, and Hospice care/death are the end of the healthcare spectrum.  The worst thing you can do is wait till it’s too late to begin planning for what happens after you die. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Senior Advocate and Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law, a Multi-Generation Law Firm serving DuPage, Kane , Kendall, Will, Cook and other Counties in Illinois. Alzheimer’s disease has become all too prevalent among our nation’s seniors.  Worse yet, every family will inevitably feel the shockwaves caused by this heartbreaking and devastating diagnosis.  According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, nearly 44 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. In many cases, the caregiver ends up suffering right along with the alzheimer’s patient.  This was recently brought home for me after watching a CBS news special report about a man who postponed his own retirement in order to pay for his wife’s alzheimer’s care. Here is the story of Mike and Carol: Mark is the sole caregiver for his wife Carol, who has Alzheimer’s disease. When we first met Mike and Carol Daly eight years ago, Mike was the sole caregiver after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. He often took her to work with him. Today, at age 73, he’s still working. But now, as Carol declines, a health care worker cares for her during the day. He said if he wanted to retire, he couldn’t afford to care for Carol. “That’s my fear, I could not swing it financially. I would have to dedicate my whole life to taking care of Carol, because I wouldn’t be able to afford home care. Not enough money.” A recent survey documented the financial sacrifices Alzheimer’s caregivers are often forced to make. Beth Kallmyer with the Alzheimer’s Association said the participants were having to make difficult choices in order to make ends meet. “They were having to make choices about putting food on the table, or going to the doctor, or taking money out of their retirement funds in order to make sure the person had care.” The survey also found almost half of caregivers were forced to cut back on their own expenses. For Mike, that means working and saving so Carol can stay in their home. The alternative would be to put Carol in a nursing home, which Mike says he just can’t do. “I have an obligation to her, the love I have for her,” he said, crying. “I can’t abandon her.” The cost of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s is a lot more than financial. “I’m dying, I really think I am,” Mike said. “My blood pressure is like 200 over 100. They wanted to put me in the hospital. I can’t go in the hospital … What do I do with Carol?” His blood pressure is now under control with increased medication. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, about 2 of 3 people incorrectly believe that Medicare may or will help them cover nursing home costs. That may help explain why only about 3 percent of U.S. adults have insurance for long-term care. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Elder Law and Estate Planning attorney Rick Law.  Founder of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in West suburban Aurora, IL. The dynamic issues that often arise in contested guardianship cases are factually and legally complex and often bring forward sensitive and personal issues. It is your lawyer’s responsibility to separate the legal issues from the often complex emotional matters while zealously advocating for you, the client – all the while maintaining the integrity of the person with alleged disabilities and the parties involved. The guardian should always seek court authority to commence, prosecute, or defend any suit on behalf of the ward. After appointment, all suits and proceedings on behalf of the ward should be brought by the guardian in the capacity as guardian, rather than in the name of the person with disabilities. The guardian of the estate may settle any lawsuit involving the ward, but the probate court must first approve settlement as in the best interests of the ward. A care manager was notified of an elderly woman who was living alone. She was suffering from a lot of physical deficits and allegedly had two bad sons. A capable lawyer presented the case as an emergency because one of the sons was a convicted felon who was getting out of jail in three days and was going to move back in with his mother. In the past, the son prevented her from getting any care because he would threaten caregivers with knives and various other forms of violence. The woman had slight Alzheimer’s and a fierce loyalty to her son and insisted that her son was fine and wasn’t causing problems. However, the caregivers would all leave, which then put her in a dire situation. So the lawyer’s job was to go into court, get a temporary guardianship in place, and protect the woman by stopping the convicted felon son from moving back into her house. The experienced guardianship lawyer on the case was able to present the urgency of moving forward and getting orders of protection through the guardianship court to protect this woman from the convicted felon. Checking past police reports, the lawyer found reports of 46 police visits to the home for violent episodes. These reports included domestic violence, violence against the neighbors, brandishing a butcher knife, and chasing caregivers around the apartment. The woman had forgotten about these incidents due to her Alzheimer’s. The lawyer was able to get an emergency guardianship in place within 24 hours. Professional caregivers were appointed to manage the care environment and care providers. With the ex-con son out of the picture, the care managers discovered that the other son wasn’t really a bad guy. It turned out that he was petrified of his brother and wouldn’t go and help in the house when his brother was present because he feared for his safety. They were able to work with the other son, and the mother actually moved in with her “better son.” A 24-hour caregiver was put in place to monitor the situation. After a short period of time, it was prudent to pull out the 24-hour caregiver. The good son has been able to take care of his mother for the last two years. The other son is not disrupting the care anymore, and it’s actually a very successful and economical outcome. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By estate planning attorney Rick Law.  Rick is founder of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in West Suburban Aurora, IL.  LEL is a multi-generation law firm. Most people want to remain at home for as long as possible as they age. Some seniors living at home need help with activities of daily living. The problem is, the cost of hiring in-home help can add up quickly, and a nursing home or assisted living facility becomes the only option. Few people know about a special benefit within Medicaid law that allows some seniors to stay at home longer, qualify for assistance with Adult Day care, and even keep more money – all while still qualifying for benefits to pay for care!  This benefit is called the Medicaid Community Care Program. Most people think that Medicaid will only pay if the senior is in a nursing home and is already impoverished.  At Law Elder Law, we strive to give our clients the best possible outcome – and that includes helping them qualify for special programs like this. We work to ensure our clients are not left exceedingly impoverished, and receive the best care for their specific situation. The Illinois Department on Aging’s Community Care Program helps seniors who might otherwise need nursing home care to remain at home by providing help that the senior may need.  This includes help within the home, as well as in the community. This program allows qualifying seniors to keep their independence, while providing cost-effective alternatives to a nursing home. In the next installment of my blog, you’ll learn about some of the powerful tools we use to protect Illinois families. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick Law, estate planning elder law attorney and senior advocate of the estate planning center at Law Elder Law in West Suburban Aurora, Illinois. A charitable group contacted a professional care manager about an elderly immigrant with Alzheimer’s disease who needed help because the woman’s agents under her powers of attorney were not acting on her behalf. The woman did not have adequate food and was literally starving. She was giving all of her money away to her neighbors. She had a caregiver, but the caregiver was an alcoholic who kept taking the woman to the emergency room to get Tylenol with codeine and taking it all herself. The woman had congestive heart failure that was not being treated. She had pain that was not being treated. She had oxygen tanks, but they were all empty. The powers of attorney would not help her. They were located two states away and would not provide any service for her because they thought she was fine. The care managers were able to be named temporary guardians and were able to provide caregivers. Fortunately, the care managers were able to inform the woman’s family. The family finally realized that if they did not step up to the plate and do the job, somebody else would and they would lose control. One of the family members actually moved in with the woman and became her caregiver. The elderly woman was able to stay in her own home with care, and the care managers turned the guardianship over to the family with court supervision. This is an example of excellent work by a lawyer who knows the system, and who knows the preference of the court to have family manage things. But if the family is not doing a good job, then they start getting supervised by the court because the courts are going to protect the person with disabilities. That’s the role of a good guardianship lawyer. You may need someone who is prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the ward. Once the guardianship process is in place, the least restricted environment principle needs to apply, but sometimes it takes an iron fist to ensure the family does a good job. In some cases, a temporary guardianship may be available to authorize limited substitute decision making, where necessary for the immediate protection of the “alleged disabled individual”. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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 By Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law, of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law LLP Let me introduce you to Scott Ewing, chief operating officer at the Oaks – a United Methodist Continuous Care Retirement Community located in Orangeburg South Carolina, just inland from Charleston. The Oaks plays host to some exciting caregiving related work, designed to give people diagnosed with dementia the ability to live at home with dignity while providing peace of mind for family members and caregivers.  They provide traditional senior services and care combined with a look to the future, recognizing that there is extraordinary pressure to move long-term care from the institutional facility back into the community. The Oaks is providing caregiver monitoring for Scott’s 87-year old mother who still lives at home 600 miles from Orangeburg. Without the technology in her home, she would need to live at an assisted-living facility.  I asked Scott to explain how this new technology helps his mother, and here’s what he said: “I’m a nursing home administrator so I understand costs very well. I had to have a discussion with my family about the risks versus reward of keeping Mom at home. My fear is not that she falls, because I know she’s going to fall—she’s elderly—but if she falls and something happens and she’s undiscovered, that would be terrible. But with this technology, we can know that if she falls we’ll get an alert. My mother is a retired schoolteacher and not particularly affluent. The cost of a nursing home where she lives in Maryland is $7,000-plus a month. Assisted living would be $5,000-plus a month. When you put in the technology, you have up-front costs for the system—but that is less than one month of assisted living. With what we have put in, my mother can continue to live in her home of 53 years, and all her neighbors are around to help and support her. If I get an alert, I call a next-door neighbor and they’ll check on her. She’s had some of the same neighbors all her life. It’s been tremendous and very liberating for her to have the technology so she can stay at home.” While we were doing this interview, Scott got an alert that his mother had been in the bathroom more than one hour. He excused himself and went to make a call. He returned and told us that she had responded somewhat sheepishly, “I’m sorry, son, I must have fallen asleep.” Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.   Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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 By Attorney Rick Law, managing partner at the Estate Planning Center of Law Elder Law in West Suburban Chicagoland. The Oaks, a United Methodist Continuous Care Retirement Community, is located in Orangeburg, near Charleston, South Carolina. What attracted us was the exciting work being done there to give people diagnosed with dementia the ability to live at home with dignity while providing peace of mind for family members and caregivers. The Oaks provides traditional senior services and care combined with a look to the future, recognizing that there is extraordinary pressure to move long-term care from the institutional facility back into the community. The visionary leader of the Oaks is the Rev. James McGee, CEO. When we met with him and Stacie Pierce, director of the technology/caregiving solution program called Live at Home Technologies, they had recently returned from meeting with IT wizards in Israel. The purpose of their trip was further their research, development, and implementation of innovative technologies that will provide remote in-home care for people affected by dementia. Some of the activities monitored include motion of an individual or lack of motion, bed and chair activities, medication access, patterns of movement through the home, daily body weight, daily blood pressure and blood glucose, time spent in the bathroom, the opening and closing of interior and exterior doors, and appliance usage. I asked Stacie to tell us about how technology is helping seniors live at home longer, and here’s what she said: “This is something I’m passionate about. I’m a caregiver first and foremost. We take care of people, and we use technology to enhance that care so that when they’re not safe anymore, they understand what their other choices are.  There are more than 70 million baby boomers about to hit the market. We need to have choices available. When you talk about Alzheimer’s, it’s an epidemic, and people are living longer and the disease is being diagnosed earlier. Technology gives people more living options. We help people live at home with the support of honest and reliable family members who live nearby. One family lives 90 minutes from our facility. The daughter-in-law and son-in-law live about 500 yards away from the two disabled family members. The father has Alzheimer’s and his daughter, who lives with him, is 62.  The daughter is developmentally delayed and has an IQ equivalent to a three- or four-year-old. The wife recently died of a massive heart attack, most likely due to caregiver fatigue.  She had been taking care of both her husband with Alzheimer’s and her disabled 62-year-old daughter. So now you have a family who is asking, what can we do? The man was born in this house and the daughter was raised there. They have been a part of each other’s lives for 62 years, and they have their patterns. If we separate them, she’ll go to an institution and he’ll go to assisted living or a nursing home, and they’ll both probably die much sooner. We examined their living patterns. We worked with the family to figure out what the rules will be.  He still likes to go out and get the mail. They live on a busy road, so we put a door sensor on the door. Then I started thinking – if he leaves the door open, how am I going to know if he came back in? So I put a floor mat down on the inside. So if he opens the door and there’s no pressure on the floor sensor within 20 minutes, then I know he didn’t come back in. We’ve had that system in place for three years now.  Anytime an alert is sent out, it goes to one of the other family members who live nearby. The daughter had a history of falling in the bathtub. So we established a rule that if there’s pressure on a mat in the bathroom for more than 30 minutes, then an alert is sent to one of the family members. We can set it up so that an alert goes to one of the family members, on their cell phone or their computer, and then they can connect to the house, turn on the camera inside, and actually view to see if someone is on the floor. We here at the Oaks do not have access to the cameras—only family members do. You can’t have technology without some sort of caregivers, as well. Nonetheless, the technology can make the caregiver’s life more livable. Otherwise there’s a much higher likelihood that the caregiver will die before the person being cared for. I met with a man yesterday who’s in his mid-80s and still an active businessman. His wife has Alzheimer’s and he needs help with care. He says, “I still enjoy my work. I have to go out of town to do business. I can’t take care of my wife 24/7.” He wants to have a solution so his wife can continue to live at home and to provide the family with some sanity at the same time. We can put in a system that will allow him to go out and play poker and still keep his wife safe by providing alerts to him or other caregivers. Most people don’t even know that these types of solutions are available. I have been certified as an assistive technology practitioner and an aging-in-place specialist. This type of training allows us to work with homebuilders and remodelers to design appropriate systems within residences.” Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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