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By Laura Eliason, CLTC, Genworth Long Term Care / Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

The week of November 5-11 has been declared Long Term Care Awareness Week by the American Association of Long Term Care Insurance.  On a related note, November is National Family Caregivers Month.  But once care giving services are needed, it is probably too late to purchase long term care insurance.  This insurance is one of the most important ways to plan for possible future care.

Many Americans may need long term care at some point in their lives.  Since Medicare and health insurance cover very little long term care, and since many Americans do not yet own long term care insurance, the burden of care giving often falls upon unpaid family caregivers.  Although all long term care needs, by definition, last more than 90 days, many people need help for much longer, sometimes for years.  This can be a significant physical, financial and emotional burden for family caregivers. 

In an effort to encourage Americans to prepare for their future long-term care needs, Long Term Care Awareness Week reminds all of the importance of this planning.  While most people don’t like to think of this aspect of retirement planning, it is just as important as drafting a will or saving for retirement. 

Consider these facts:

• Long term care insurance is the only type of insurance primarily designed to pay for long term care.
• Comprehensive policies from leading insurers can be affordable.  The federal government and many states offer tax incentives to make the insurance even more attractive.  (Speak with your tax advisor.)
• Time is a consumer’s enemy when it comes to long term care planning, because every year that someone delays the purchase of long term care insurance, the premium generally increases. 
• A change in health can make it impossible to qualify for long term care insurance. 
  Consumers are advised to schedule a meeting with a long term care insurance agent to see if long term care insurance makes sense for them. 

Long Term Care Awareness Week sends us all this message: Don’t let another year pass without taking a hard look at how you will pay for your own long term care.
 
Laura Eliason is a licensed long term care insurance agent with an office in Novi, Michigan 248-921-4957
LauraEliason@Genworthltc.com
www.LauraEliasonLTCi.com

By Elaine M. Simpson, Founder/Owner of Senior Options and Services, LLC / Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

As a long distance caregiver, you will need to possess and understand critical information involving your parent’s personal, medical, financial, and legal records. Collecting this information is difficult and time consuming.  If you have ever tried to gather and organize your own personal information, you know what a chore it can be. Gathering and organizing this information from far away can seem even more challenging. Maintaining up-to-date information about your parent’s health and medical care, as well as finances, home ownership, and other legal issues, lets you get a handle on what is going on and allows you to respond quickly if there is a crisis.    

Once you have gathered all the information, keep track of all the important documents and correspondence in a binder.  Use dividers to separate medical, financial and legal documents and information.  Getting organized is key. Find all legal and financial documents, including birth certificates, social security cards, marriage or divorce decrees, wills, and power of attorney. Identify bank accounts, titles, sources of income and obligations.  Be sure to include auto, life, homeowner’s and medical insurance papers in the binder. Review these documents for accuracy and update them if necessary. 

Confirm that the power of attorney documents include the now required HIPAA language.  Store the binder in a secure place and keep an additional copy of this binder with you in case of emergency.  

Create a team.  Ask for help from people in your parent’s community, such as other relatives, neighbors, longtime family friends and members of religious, civic, and social organizations. Ask them to let you know immediately if they recognize a possible problem.  

Planning will minimize poor decisions and unnecessary stress. These topics may be difficult or even painful to talk about, but they help ensure that your parent maintains their decision-making authority even when incapacitated.  Addressing these issues before a crisis occurs allows a well thought out plan to be composed which will minimize family disagreements as well as protect the family resources.   If possible, bring the family together for a meeting. Decide with your parent what their primary needs is, who can provide assistance and what community resources would help. Summarize your agreement in writing. Keep in mind that family difficulties are typical and that you may need to bring in a company such as Senior Options and Solutions, a family therapist or social worker to assist through this transition.
  
Keep in mind that the best laid plans may need to be altered.  As your parent’s needs may change, and members of the team will come and go, you will need to be able to adjust and make changes accordingly.
  
The absolute most important thing to remember-
You are no good to anyone if you don’t take care of yourself.  

Maintain good health, make time for yourself, set limits, and allow others to help!

Elaine founded Senior Options and Solutions, LLC after 22 years of working primarily with seniors during housing transitions. So often the stress associated with transitioning an aging loved one is overwhelming and can tear a family apart. Elaine believes in offering knowledge, options, guidance and comfort to minimize the stress and to ensure a smooth transition. Providing resources, assistance and services to our client during their lifestyle transition is our mission. We’ve always enjoyed working with seniors and believe in providing attentive and individualized care to create a present and a future that is comfortable, safe and secure for our aging population. Click here to visit her website.

Dear Friends and Family;

Things are rather somber just now in Menkhoaneng.  We’ve had an event that has shocked and disturbed everyone.  A week ago Sunday a so-far unidentified group of vandals set fire to our beautiful Cultural Village and it burnt to the ground.

The primary suspects are a group of boys from an initiation school high in the mountains behind the village.  These initiation schools are controversial in so many ways.  On the one hand, they preserve many aspects of ancient Basotho culture.  The boys learn the traditional roles and responsibilities of men.  The experience inspires a love of their culture and gives many of them a membership into an exclusive society that they cherish – perhaps a bit like what the masons of our culture must experience.

What goes on at these schools is very secret.  We all know that the boys are circumcised on about the third day and learn things about herding animals, sex, warfare (i.e. fighting with sticks and spears) and lots of traditional songs and dances which only the initiated are ever allowed to perform.  On the negative side this is often an opportunity for the rampant spread of AIDS.  Sangomas often use the same razor on each boy.  The sangoma who accompanied the boys from our village, a good friend of mine, took over 100 new blades – a gift from the American Friends of Menkhoaneng.  I’ve heard that this is very tough training with powerful male bonding and testosterone levels can get very high.  The two schools involved in the fire had been attacking each other far beyond what is acceptable in the simulated “warfare” that is a part of the training.  Lots of threats were made about burning down each others villages.  The police and most of the villagers here believe that our beautiful Cultural Village was the victim of this animosity.

I’ve just returned from almost a week in Maseru meeting with various ministers and stakeholders in the Cultural Village project.  The amount of national high-level concern over this event is amazing seeing how much trouble I’ve had getting any of these stakeholders to put their money where their mouths are regarding coughing up funding for the Project.

Anyway, the king is upset, the parliament is hotly debating the whole initiation school issue, everyone with clout is sending their own investigators to the village and the question on whether we will proceed with building a Cultural Village at this site is very much up in the air.

The site is considered holy ground by many Basotho and there is a growing contingent that feel it should remain untouched.  Even the archeological group that was here working on excavating some of the ruins has been sent packing.

I’ve been accompanying investigators around the village on their interviews.

I feel like a not too bright Jessica Fletcher.

Officials from the Peace Corps were here this morning just to satisfy themselves that I am in no danger.  I’m sure I am not.  They did advise me, however, to take off my Jessica Fletcher hat and step as far away from the investigation as possible.  I agreed to do so.  Actually, the investigation is pretty much over and during the primary interviews I traveled for a day with a very sharp female detective who said she will tell me everything on my next trip to Butha Buthe.  I gave her a whole bag of detective novels featuring female detectives.  I think we’re going to be friends.

Christmas is around the corner.  It doesn’t feel much like the holiday season here – no TV flaunting the latest gift ideas, weather that feels like summer (it is summer here) and not a decoration in sight – but it will be a nice time of families getting together sharing whatever they have with friends and many church services.  My daughter, Elizabeth, is arriving on Christmas Day with her husband Andrew.  I am counting the days and have planned a rather whirlwind tour of Lesotho for them.  They can only stay a week but I know it will be a memorable one for all of us.

I hope each of you has a wonderful Christmas filled with all the people you love and things you like to do.  May your every Christmas dream come true.

Love,

Peggi