Initially, an experienced professional will discuss the program, features, and assure them of confidentiality. If the employee speaks a language other than English, ELPO will contact an interpreter to assist the employee.

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

The nurse, geriatric specialist, or social worker will counsel the caregiver on the particular concern and follow-up with an all-purpose information kit and appropriate targeted resource materials (i.e. article on Alzheimer's, Medicare regulations, etc).  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., parent company of Elder Life Planning for Organizations, uses extensive and continuously updated data banks of local and national resources. The letter and accompanying materials are sent within a few working days from the onset of the consultation.

Appropriate websites, brochures, topic-specific book(s) and video lists are also provided to the caregiver.  Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc. is sensitive to the sophistication of the employee and accommodates these levels by tailoring the information.  For example, some people may want current medical research in a topic area, while others may prefer "plain-English" explanations.

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.

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
• Work/family concerns, and
  
• Other support as needed

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.