 | Shanna Parrish-Taylor is the Director of Nursing at Vintage Place Assisted Living. She is a RN with 9 years long term care experience, experience in critical care as well as hospice setting. Shanna is currently working on her master’s degree towards obtaining her ANRP. For more information on Shanna or Vintage Place please call 620-231-4554.
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Senior Living
2013-04-29 15:48:35
When should I plan for assisted living?
Q-Right now, my siblings and I are working to keep our father in assisted living. We all have moderately sized families and a moderate income. Seeing this in action has made me think about my own future needs. How soon should I consider options and make plans for them?
A-Thinking about aging is difficult. It is hard to imagine ourselves as needing help or having lost any of our physical abilities. This is a big reason why most people put off planning for any type of care. Not planning, however, can put us and our loved ones in a real bind.
About 70 percent of people 65 and older will require some type of long-term or assisted living care at some point in their lifetime. Given the statistics, it is better to assume you will need care and plan ahead for your future as soon as possible.
The first advantage of planning is a financial one. Planning ahead gives you time to set aside money in an interest earning account as well as factor in any other financial resources such as Social Security, pension, stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, and other property.
Another advantage is it gives you an opportunity to get insurance in place at a lower rate and time to know your coverage thoroughly. Most people are very surprised to find out that Medicare does not cover most of long-term care costs. If your resources are limited, avoiding planning may prevent you from finding additional resources for which you may qualify or from the ability to leverage all of your property.
Planning also allows you to make your own decisions and have those things in place long before there is ever a need. You will want to consider things such as living wills, or the written instructions for the care you want in the event you are not able to make those decisions yourself, and medical power of attorney, a document that names a particular person as your health care decision maker. Having these in place also helps remove the burden from your family.
Lastly, planning ahead gives you time to make choices that will help delay the need for care by making healthy decisions now. Choose to get regular health care, stay active, maintain a safe environment, eat well, and avoid unhealthy practices such as the use of tobacco and other substances.
Talking about care can be uncomfortable, but it may open up a world of possibility you never knew existed. My advice: Start planning now so that you can fully enjoy life.
