A Life Care Navigator is a Registered Nurse who provides professional assessment, ongoing support, and continual oversight of your loved one’s care.
A Life Care Navigator’s role is to partner with family, physicians, and all the other members of the care team to identify and juggle all of the pieces of the intricate ElderCare puzzle to extend the length of time your loved one can remain in his or her own home safely and independently.
Do any of these situations apply to you or other family members?
- “I’m the oldest daughter and it seems like all of my siblings expect me to take total charge of arranging and supervising care for my parents. I’m feeling resentful and guilty at the same time, but I can’t do it all by myself.”
- “I have children of my own, a full-time job, and a husband, all of whom also put significant demands on my time and attention.”
- “I’d like to be more involved in Mom and Dad’s care, but I live far enough away that I can’t be there very often.”
- “I can’t keep arriving late for work, leaving early to take Dad to his doctors’ appointments, or taking work time to make phone calls trying to coordinate his care.”
- “I have considered cutting back from my full-time job to just working part-time because Mom and Dad are requiring more of my time to help.”
- “It would be so nice to just be a daughter when I visit Mom, instead of being her caregiver. I want to spend quality time when I see her, not just do her laundry and vacuum.”
- “I don’t know how to navigate the health care system, apply for V.A home care benefits, or know anything about when hospice care is appropriate and how it all works.”
- “Dad’s savings are not going to be sufficient to pay for care for much longer. What other funding sources are available besides Reverse Mortgages and Long Term Care Insurance? Help.”
- “I just feel overwhelmed.”
- “Mom’s one wish is to never have move out of her home, but my brother thinks we should just move her to an assisted living facility in spite of what we promised her. I don’t know what the best thing is to do.”
- “How can we make sure Dad is taking his medications when he is supposed to?”
- “What can we do to reduce the risk of another ER visit or hospitalization?”
If any of these sound like thoughts you may have had, you can be assured that you are not alone. The role of a Visiting Angel Life Care Navigator is to take these kinds of stresses and obligations away from family members, and provide the level of professional leadership that has been shown over and over to reduce critical incidents, clinic and ER episodes, and hospitalizations, which makes it possible for individuals to remain in their home longer.
How can a Life Care Navigator help?
- Provide medication management, including: setting up medications, monitoring change orders, training in-home staff to properly assist with medications and identify adverse drug reactions.
- Schedule doctor visits as necessary, provide transportation, accompany client and serve as observer and advocate during physician visit.
- Bridge the communication gap between physician, pharmacist, and family.
- Identify referrals for medical, legal, and financial services.
- Supervise and monitor Visiting Angels Home Health Aides.
- Make appropriate referrals to Medicare-covered services, such as physician services and physical therapy.
- Intervene in crisis episodes.
- Provide geriatric education to family members on issues such as dementia, nutrition, medication reactions, etc.
- Conduct regular wellness visits.
- Advocate for your loved one residing in a nursing home or assisted living facility; attend care conferences.
- Provide referrals to an outside physician or geriatric specialist as additional services are needed.
- Provide consistent, proactive monitoring of care recipient’s emotional and physical condition.
