Checklist: Help Parents with a Life Change

How do you as a family help your senior loved on through the process of downsizing to a new home for a life change? Whether it be to independent living for active seniors, or maybe they're transitioning to an adult family home, or go into a senior community, maybe memory care or dementia care, there are a lot of options out there. Daphne Davis from Pinnacle Senior Placements joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to provide us with a checklist for helping our loved ones through this challenge. She talks from the perspective of a family not having a placement advisor to walk alongside them and giving them all the little details of how to how a successful transition. She highly recommends selecting a placement advisor or referral agent – they don't cost you anything and provide a wealth of information during this process.

Daphne says, "You need to know what your budget is, not only the total amount that you have, but your monthly expenditure that you can afford. There might be cash flow issues that go along. Now. If you had an advisor, they'd be bringing all of these things up and they'd be working through it and they know on the top of their head how much things cost.

If you have a book that you're looking at, very often that information is not going to be accurate. It's going to be information that is at the lowest scale of pricing for rent and care. Know that there's two different things, if you're looking at assisted living or independent living in a large community, the numbers that you see are not going to include care. Look how many things you might trip over. And we haven't even gotten to the building yet."

Daphne goes into detail about her checklist:

1. Have a clear picture of who needs care, assess the situation.

2. Assess the budget.

3. Know the general area they're moving to.

4. Establish your highest values

5. Do they convert to Medicaid when money runs out?

Reach Pinnacle at 1-855-734-1500 or visit PinnacleSeniorPlacements.com.

To final a referral agent in your area, visit the National Placement & Referral Alliance website search.

Learn more:

* Pinnacle Senior Placements at Answers for Elders.

* About Daphne Davis

* Hear more podcasts with Daphne Davis