CareGiving Navigator – Long Island Edition – Guide to CareGiving Aging Loved Ones

How to Plan, What to Do, and Where to Turn When Caring for your Aging Loved Ones.

And Yourself.

How to Plan, What to Do, and Where to Turn When Caring for your Aging Loved Ones.

And Yourself.

Welcome to the Caregiving Navigator

Dear Families and Friends,

Caring for an older loved one is one of the most generous gifts you can give—and probably one of the most challenging tasks you’ll ever have.

I’m one of the hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders—and tens of millions of family caregivers across the nation—who have experienced first-hand the responsibility of caring or managing the care of a parent, spouse, relative, or friend. Several years ago, my three brothers and I took care of our Mom, a brave and remarkable woman who successfully aged in place before eventually succumbing to Alzheimer’s.

We went through every phase of caregiving: helping our mother stay independent for as long as possible; managing the complex process of legal and financial planning for long-term care; overseeing a wide variety of services as Mom became increasingly frail, such as home care aides and adult day care programs; overseeing doctors’ visits, wound care and sub-acute rehabilitation services, physical therapy and other in-home health-care providers; handling end-of-life needs; and finally, settling her estate

Caregiving is a continuum, not a static, one-time task. Your duties will shift as circumstances change. Surviving this emotional roller-coaster requires a plan of “care-partnering,” managing responsibilities with family members and health-care professionals, social service organizations, government agencies, financial and legal experts. You must learn to differentiate your role as caregiver with other multiple roles—as advocate, spouse, adult child, friend and family provider.

Over the last decade, supporting family caregiving has become vital to my work in “successful aging,” promoting intergenerational activities that help older and younger generations honor what each has to offer. I aim to bolster “caregiving literacy” across our nation, building a caregiving movement across in every sector of our society.

We all must be engaged in caregiving. In an ever-changing and unpredictable world, we must discover better ways to provide sustainable care for our aging loved ones, forging a new path of care for ourselves, our children, and our children’s children.

Sincerely,

Ron Roel