Many New Businesses Form To Ease Transition To Assisted Living

Sun., Sept. 7, 1997

By Susan English susane@spokesman.com

Life in the 1990s is busy for the so-called Sandwich Generation, caught in the frenzied middle between child care and parent care.

When it comes to helping parents decide to make a move, whether to a retirement community, an assisted living facility or a nursing home, baby boomers find themselves with too little time and information, often while trying to help from a distance.

What to do?

Many take time away from work and family to help parents. When that isn’t possible or there are no children to help, often an attorney is hired to make arrangements.

But with the population aging, there’s plenty of room for a more encompassing service. In this region, some children and their parents are turning to relatively new businesses that act as advocates for seniors.

Entrepreneurs Kara Jaffe Schmidt and Donita Basinger started one such business, Care Management Resources. Both are registered nurses. Among the services their company provides: an initial assessment of the emotional, physical and social needs of a client.

Then they will offer more information on living options, ranging from in-home care to a nursing home. They will shop for the most appropriate place and even help the senior client move.

“We do all the footwork,” says Basinger. “A major part of our clientele are those individuals trapped in the Sandwich Generation. They are simply overwhelmed.

“We help them find what they need for their parents in a timely matter.”

Customers aren’t limited to the time-stretched, though. When a senior needs to make a move and the children live in another area, or there are no children, these advocate businesses will step in and do the assessment of needs, shop for options and hire the appropriate in-home services, or help the client move to a facility.

Fees vary, but as an example, Care Management Resources can do an uncomplicated assessment for about $200. More commonly, assessments range from four to six hours, billed at $70 an hour.

Other services, also billed at $70 an hour, include information about and referral to community resources, caregiver training, facility placement and relocation. After the client has moved to an assisted living facility, Care Management resources will also check back on the client’s well-being and take any action that is appropriate as an advocate for that person.

, DataTimes

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