Helping Working Caregivers Manage the Challenges of Balancing Work and Caring for an Adult Family Member

Providing the Elder Life Planning for Organizations to Your Employees

Once your company decides to offer the Elder Life Planning for Organizations, your employees will have access to our nationwide counseling services.  Your employees will be given a toll-free number to call for assistance.  This is an outline of what your employees can expect when they call Elder Life Planning for Organizations.

1.  An employee calls with an older adult concern or question.  Initially an experienced professional will discuss the program, features, and assure them of confidentiality.  If the employee is not able to understand English, an interpreter will be contacted to assist the employee.

2.  The professional staff will gather pertinent information from the employee or other family member regarding employee concerns and questions about their loved ones, older adult's physical and mental status, older adult's functional abilities, current home environment of the client, desires and financial capability of the client and/or family, and amount of caregiving responsibilities that the employee may have.

3.  The nurse geriatric specialist or social worker will counsel the caregiver on the particular concern and follow-up with a package of information and resources to the caregivers specific issues and adding appropriate materials (i.e. article on Alzheimer's, Medicare regulations, etc).  The letter and accompanying materials are sent within a few working days from the onset of the consultation.

4.  The information kit will contain a list of resources giving provider names, addresses, phone numbers, and a short description of pertinent services.  Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. uses extensive data banks of local and national resources that are continuously updated. 

5.  Referrals for the older adults living outside the area are facilitated by Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. professional staff.  An employee whose parents live in any part of the country can assist the older adult through this program.  Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. accesses long-established relationships with a national network of experienced professionals across the United States.

6.  Appropriate websites, brochures, topic-specific book and video lists are also provided to the caregiver.  Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. is sensitive to the sophistication of the employee and accommodates the level by tailoring the information.  For example, some people may want current research in a topic area while others may want more simple explanations.

7.  Our professional staff will provide consultation in the form of education and support regarding issues such as:  practical solutions to elder care problems; living wills/durable power of attorney; stress management; long distance caregiving; health care information (e.g. nutrition, exercise, medications, etc.); interpretation of medical jargon; and work/family concerns, just to name a few.  Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. staff is very sensitive to the emotional upheavals these situations produce and offers empathy and support to the employee.

8.  After referral follow-up:  Follow-up will entail a call from our professional staff no more than 7 days after initial contact to ensure that the client has received the information packet, to establish that the concern or problem has been resolved in a satisfactory way, and to provide additional information and referral assistance if a solution has not been found.  Many employee situations require one or two months of involvement due to the complexity of the case.