Life-care planning is a different kind of approach to responding to the chronic illness of an elderly person. The approach is a more holistic one, which is focused on meeting the needs of the elderly individual and helping both that senior and his or her family members to meet the challenges that a chronic illness can cause.
German Law has extensive experience with life-care planning, which quires an inter-disciplinary team working together to anticipate and meet the need for future care rather than responding to a crisis as a problem arises. To find out more about the way in which our firm can help you to enhance life with a chronic condition and make caregiving easier through life-care planning, give us a call. We can provide personalized advice creating your life-care plan and can provide answers to questions you you may have including:
- What is life-caring planning?
- What should be part of your life care plan?
- How can a life-care planning lawyer help clients in North Dakota and Minnesota?
What is Life-Care Planning?
Life-care planning can help to protect and preserve family resources so an illness does not jeopardize the ability of a senior to leave behind a legacy. It is also about much more than just protecting assets and exploring access to benefits.
Life-care planning is a service provided by elder law attorneys who can provide access to a full array of planning assistance that become important when a senior is diagnosed with a chronic condition. The process of making a life-care plan involves looking at the bigger picture at all of the different issues that could arise for families as a result of a diagnosed illness. This could include coordinating care; education for family members; making advanced decisions on healthcare issues; financial decision-making; and identifying a healthcare advocate.
German Law has experience with helping your family to work though a stress-free planning process in response to an illness so life can move forward with plans for the future in place. We can guide you through the creation of your plan and take care of the technical legal issues for you to make the process easy even for families coping with a serious medical situation.
What Should be a Part of Your Life-Care Plan?
A life care plan must be personalized to each senior’s specific situation, with the goal of ensuring that the elderly person with the chronic condition is provided with an appropriate level of care. This care could be provided in a residential environment, such as a nursing home or assisted living facility. It could also be provided by home health aides in the senior’s home.
In addition to making plans for an appropriate level of care, it is also important to locate benefits programs and public resources that could cover the costs of care. Nursing home and home care are both very expensive and could result in a persons’ entire life savings being lost in a matter of months.
Medicaid, veterans’ benefits and a variety of other programs could help to make care more affordable and could help to ensure a senior is able to remain in his community for as long as possible.
Other tools that are aimed at preserving family resources, giving the elder autonomy over care decisions, and providing support for caregivers could also be a part of a life-care plan. This could range from the creation of a power of attorney to exploring respite programs for caregivers to making advanced directives so a senior with a chronic condition has the ability to express his or her preferences for medical care in emergency situations.
How Can a Life-Care Planning Lawyer Help Clients in North Dakota and Minnesota?
A life-care plan is empowering for a senior with a chronic health condition and it helps to ensure that the senior and his or her family members are taking full advantage of all support services available. It is about enhancing quality of life while protecting resources.
German Law can guide you through this process so you can make the right plans to secure the brightest future possible for you and your loved ones. To find out more about how we help clients in North Dakota and Minnesota with their life care plans, give us a call today.
