As a family caregiver, you may feel overwhelmed with your responsibilities. It happens to everyone. Caring for an older person can be stressful. But the situation can be made all the more difficult when it is a loved one. Luckily, there is somewhere to turn when you are looking for advice, useful information, or simply need to vent – a senior care advisor.
What is a senior care manager?
Senior care managers are elderly care experts who utilize their experience and knowledge to provide advice, information, and support to family caregivers. The Abramson Center’s Senior Care services are totally free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An advisor can help you by providing information related creating a senior care routine, dealing with caregiver burnout and stress, long-term care options (including options other than the Abramson Center’s own offerings), and basically any topic related to senior care.
Common questions to ask senior care managers
If you want to contact a senior care manager, but are unsure where to start, these questions will help. Once you feel comfortable enough to begin the conversation with your advisor, you’ll be amazed by how much useful information they can provide.
- What Can You Tell Me About Yourself? This is always a nice and simple way to start. This will give you a chance to get to know the care advisor a bit, and may make you feel a little more comfortable about confiding in them. It may also help you to know that it is a real person on the other line who understands what you are going through. From here, you can get into more specific senior care advisor questions.
- What is Your Experience/Qualifications? Next, ask about their professional qualifications and their experience as a care advisor. Learn more about their professional background and what their skills are. In some cases, you will find that senior care advisors have cared for an elderly loved one themselves and that they understand emotionally what you are going through at the moment.
- What Sort of Help/Advice Can You Offer Me? You may be calling a senior care advisor because you have some very specific questions. Or perhaps you are calling simply because you are caring for an elderly loved one and feel overwhelmed. Regardless of why you are calling, the care advisor will likely be able to advise you on a number of different topics – including topics that may not be top of mind for you at the moment, but are still important for you to know nonetheless. For example, senior care advisors can give you phone numbers of organizations that provide medical equipment. You may not need medical equipment at this very moment, but it’s still good information to have.
- Are There Financial Help Options Available to Me? Depending on your situation, there may be government assistance programs that can help you and your loved one. It’s certainly worth asking the senior care advisor what assistance is out there.
- What Are My Options? This senior care advice question is left intentionally vague since everyone’s situation is different. The answer will largely depend on your specific situation and what type of care would be best for your loved one. For instance, your loved one may require an in-home health aide or assisted living. We recommend explaining your situation in detail to the senior care advisor, and they will explain the best options for you.
- What’s the Next Step After Our Phone Conversation? Now that you’ve had the initial conversation, what are the next steps? Largely, this will depend on what was discussed with the senior care advisor. Regarding the Abramson Center’s Senior Care Advisor service, since the calls are free and advisors are available 24/7, if you have any follow-up questions you can call again at any time.
Finally, we recommend that before you call, write down all the questions you have for the senior care advisor. This will make it easier for you and will help to make sure you don’t forget anything. Of course, don’t worry if you do forget a question – the calls are always free!
If you’re ready to have a conversation with a senior care manager, click here to get started.
Or call for free: 215-371-3400.
