The Long-Term Care System is a complicated ecosystem of care providers, care facilities, Medicare, Medicaid, Long term care insurance, Doctor’s appointments, nutrition, social interaction, mental health, and legal issues. How does someone navigate this complex system when they are dealing with the diminished physical and mental capacity of a loved one? Who can they look to as an advocate that can help with such a broad spectrum of issues? People rarely call a law firm because things are going well. Unless you won the lottery, you call a law firm because you have a problem. That’s the situation with the majority of people who call a Life Care Planning Law Firm. Something just happened. Mom has Alzheimer’s disease and is wandering. Dad had a stroke and can’t communicate. No one knows what to do or where to turn.
Life Care Planning is a holistic, elder-centered approach to the practice of law that helps families respond to every challenge caused by chronic illness or disability of an elderly loved one. The goal of Life Care Planning is to promote and maintain the good health, safety, well-being, and quality of life of elders and their families. Elders and their families get access to a wider variety of options for care as well as knowledgeable guidance from a team of compassionate advisors who help them make the right choices about every aspect of their loved one’s well-being.
Life Care Planning Law Firms rely on an interdisciplinary team that works to identify present and potential future care needs, locate appropriate care, and ensure high-quality care. This approach relies less on crisis-oriented transactions and more on the development of ongoing relationships with families.
At the heart of the elder-centered law practice, a Life Care Plan defines, organizes, prioritizes, and mobilizes every aspect of an elder’s care. In addition to traditional asset-focused elder law services such as estate planning, asset preservation, and public benefits qualification, a Life Care Plan typically includes provisions for care coordination, family education, health care, and financial decision-making, care advocacy, crisis intervention, support, and other services.
Life Care Planning Law Firms use a model called the Elder Care Continuum to help families understand the natural progression of aging and its impact on a loved one’s health, mobility, housing, and financial resources. Your initial meeting with a Life Care Planning Law Firm may focus on your loved one’s place on each line of the Elder Care Continuum. Gaps in care can then be identified and solutions discussed for closing those gaps. When your customized Life Care Plan is developed, it defines, organizes, prioritizes, and mobilizes every aspect of your loved one’s care, to allow him or her to maintain the quality of life that he or she desires. Curran Estate & Elder Law is a Life Care Planning Law Firm.
