Get Help Navigating the Senior Care System
Rosalyn Carter stated, “There are 4 kinds of people in the world, those who were caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregiving.”
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Kari thought she knew it all; she had worked in the Independent, Assisted Living and Memory Care Industry, assisting caregivers of loved ones gain services they needed as residents.
Then, Kari became a caregiver herself. First to an aunt who lost her 10-year battle with cancer, and now she has been assisting her mother with her 7-year journey with dementia. Now, Kari knows that it is not something to go at alone. Kari knew enough to reach out and research and find people and services that could help her. Kari often found herself in what she calls “the healthcare vacuum”, where she found her loved one without the appropriate services, or voids of professionals and services to help.
Kari became an advocate for her loved ones which took strategy and painstaking effort, and she can help you avoid the void, as you become the person who steps up for your loved one. There is a 90% rule; 90% of the time, 90% falls on the one person who steps up. Kari found herself in that position.
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Kari has learned how to navigate emergency rooms, hospital stays, skilled nursing and what comes next.
All too often, the caregiver does not understand the patients-rights (and if you are not a spouse, there is specific paperwork needed to gain your loved one’s medical information).
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Kari has helped caregivers navigate family meetings, with the goal to have researched what may be coming in the future, to setting goals and sometimes boundaries. Many time’s caregivers find themselves in need of establishing trusts, Power of Attorney, Guardianship and living wills. Kari can get caregivers to trusted professionals who can lessen the burden.
Often as there are declines in and health decisions need to be made about bringing in a qualified live-in-caregiver, or hiring professional agencies who vet and train CNA’s (Certified Nursing Assistants), nurses or companions to assist in care. Questions come up, and as a caregiver there needs to be many options thought out for the loved one’s safety and medical needs, because there is always several solutions to consider, and making the right decision is not always in a neat little package.
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What seems optimal is to keep a loved one in their own environment. Kari tried very hard to accomplish this. Making the decision to move her mom was very difficult. Kari could not keep up the demands of caring for her mom physically, and the cost of keeping her mom at home was becoming more than placing her in a community. The hardest decision was upsetting her mom’s routine, and the guilt was enormous. But what happened, over time was a true gift to Kari, and to her mom. Kari realized that she had placed her mom at a point in time where her mom was able to adjust to the new environment without gaining a fear-response to her new home.
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Communication has been the key element in Kari’s success and ability to assist her loved ones with their “new normal of decline”. Kari pursued her certificate for Positive Caregiving, by Teepa Snow for professionals who work directly with individuals who have dementia and other cognitive declines. It has been a tremendous help to keep her loved ones as empowered for as long as possible. Losing independence and cognitive decline creates the most difficult communication challenges. Kari knows that how she reacted to her mother’s questions and adapted to the “new normals” for her mother, rather than correcting her mother created a safe and calm environment which was key in keeping her mother from having a fear response to the changes that were and still are occurring.
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Her mom is thriving today, and is happy. Kari has learned valuable lessons on how to take care of her loved one, and how to care for herself and her family while being the compassionate caregiver she valued and strived to be. Kari now knows how to gain her mother’s rights as a client and patient.
So, if you find yourself the caregiver who 90% of the time does 90% of the caregiving, you are not alone. Sign up for Kari’s free support group which is held on Tuesday’s at 2pm CST and on Thursdays at 6:30pm CST. Kari will also work with you one-on-one. Click here for your free 20-minute complimentary Discovery Session. If you choose to have Kari mentor you through this process, use the CARE to save 25% until Dec 31, 2020.
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