Health Care Planning

Dear Reader,

Please take a minute to answer these four questions:

1. Have you thought about the possibility that you may need senior care as you grow older?

2. If yes, are you aware of the various senior care options that you may need and that are available to you?

3. If yes again, have you begun planning for your and your family members’ senior care?

4. Do you know what these options may cost you (and your older adult parents) as you both get older and, hopefully not, become infirm?

If you answered YES to just one of these questions, consider yourself in a minority.
According to a 2009 study carried out by the Boomer Project* for Home Instead** a majority of the respondentsqueried queried (a whopping 73 per cent of the adult children, i.e., Baby Boomers) said they have neither thought about nor planned for the kinds of the care they may need as they grow older.

More disturbing: 50% of the seniors surveyed indicated that they have neither thought about nor planned for their own future care needs.

The survey revealed that most respondents:
• Knew little about the care options available to them,
• Were ‘misguided’ about the cost of these options, and
• Were ‘poorly informed’ about how they will pay foror how much these options will cost them.

Most believe that their social security and Medicare benefits will be sufficient to cover these expenses. Only 18 per cent of the adult children cited long-term care insurance as a possible source for financing their future care needs. And only 21 per cent of the seniors surveyed could name long-term care as a potential financial resource.

These findings were so alarming (to us, at least) that we plan to devote the next two blog posts to information that emerged from this survey. Stay tuned.

Sig Cohen

* The Boomer Project provides market research and strategic consulting to corporations, industry associations, civic and non-profit organizations.

** Home Instead Senior Care is a U.S. based international franchise network that provides high quality non-medical senior home care. It consists of more than 875 locally owned and operated offices that help seniors and their families through the home care stage of aging.

At Tough Conversations we’re constantly looking for resources to inform us about end-of-life decision-making and support. A great resource is Five Wishes®, the “first living will that talks about your personal, emotional, and spiritual needs as well as your medical needs.” Like any document that deals with serious illness and end-of-life concerns, you should ideally discuss with family members before deciding whether to complete it.
Five Wishes® meets the legal requirements in 42 states and the District of Columbia and has helped millions of people plan for and receive the kind of care they want. Five Wishes® is unique among all other advance directives and living wills because it is user-friendly and easy to complete. It is available in 26 languages and in Braille.
Five Wishes® began when Jim Towey, Mother Teresa’s legal advisor, was working and living in her Washington, DC-based hospice. Mother Teresa’s life and work became the inspirational basis for the document, which has been called “the first living will with a heart and soul.”
Copies of Five Wishes® are available for $5 each (only $1 each in quantities of 25 or more) from Aging with Dignity, P.O. Box 1661, Tallahassee FL, visiting the website: www.agingwithdignity.org, or calling 888-5-WISHES. A national non-profit organization, Aging with Dignity’s mission is to affirm and safeguard the dignity of individuals as they age and to promote better care for those near the end of life.
We believe that the 12-page document has value for all of us. It contains a wealth of information regarding end of life treatment and support. Here is an abbreviated version of the document:
Wish 1: The Person I Want to Make Health Care Decisions for Me When I Can’t Make Them for Myself
Wish 2: My Wish for the Kind of Medical Treatment I Want or Don’t Want
Wish 3. My Wish for How Comfortable I Want to Be
Wish 4: My Wish For How I Want People to Treat Me
Wish 5: My Wish for What I Want My Loved Ones to Know
We hope you’ll look into Five Wishes® and consider whether and how it can assist you and your family members decide on how to best plan for end-of-life decision-making.

Sig Cohen