geriatric care management

Let Jewish Family Service help you.

Our Geriatric Care Managers are professional experts when it comes to the aging process. Their compassion and knowledge will help you manage the growing and complex demands and responsibilities of caring for yourself or your loved one. With personalized short-term solutions and long-range plans, we can ensure safety, independence, and a high quality of life.

Learn More About...
The Care Management Process
Support for Caregivers
When "home alone" is no longer a good idea
Being discharged from a hospital?

Care Management Process
Geriatric Care Managers visit clients to address any and all concerns and conduct a comprehensive needs assessment. Family members are encouraged to be a part of this process. After the initial needs assessment, the Geriatric Care Manager will work with the older adult and their family to develop a detailed plan of care, including recommendations and referrals.

Issues addressed include:

• Paperwork organization and bill paying
• Monitoring home care services
• Socialization
• Assistance with medical appointments including transportation
• Shopping and errands
• Safety suggestions
• Communication and family issues
• Medical and legal needs coordination
• Home repair and maintenance coordination
• Relocation and moving assistance
• Access to community resources
• Helping adjust to a death, illness, retirement, or move

Geriatric Care Managers act as advocates, consultants, and educators. Many older adults and families choose to have the services of a care manager ongoing in order to monitor, arrange, and provide for the above services.

For implementation of the care plan, Care Managers often use one of our case aides. A case aide is a Bachelor’s level trained social worker who can take you or your loved one out for a walk or to a show, take you shopping (or can shop and run errands for you), and can organize your paper work.

Fees are based on a sliding scale. All Care Managers are bonded and insured.

To be connected with a Geriatric Care Manager, call (858) 637-3040 or email.

“With the ongoing support of JFS Care Managers,
my uncle (age 92) has been able to remain living in his home.
Not only did JFS staff help us find a reliable home health care agency, but they have been our eyes and ears ever since.
We live 3,000 miles away and there is no way we could offer my uncle this quality of life without Jewish Family Service’s Geriatric Care Managers.” – Phyllis D. 

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Are you a caregiver?
Do you have responsibilities caring for an older adult family member or friend? Many adult children are part of the sandwich generation, caring for both the needs of their children and the needs of their aging parents. Geriatric Care Managers are available to meet with you to help explore the resources, options and possibilities available to you as a caregiver and your family.

For more information, call (858) 637-3040 or email.

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When "home alone" is no longer a good idea

Paula Spencer Scott, senior editor at Caring.com, compiled a guide to help families determine when the time has come to move older relatives from their homes and into a more supportive environment or, alternatively, to bring in a home health aide who can provide assistance. These signs to look for and questions to ask are adapted from Ms. Scott’s recommendations:

• Recent accidents or close calls, like a fall, medical scare, or minor car accident.
• A slow recovery. How well was a recent illness weathered? Did it develop into something serious? Was medical help sought when needed?
• Worsening of a chronic health condition. As problems like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, or congestive heart failure progress, more help will be needed.
• Greater difficulty managing activities of daily living, like dressing, bathing, and cooking.
• Bodily changes, such as obvious weight loss or gain, increased frailty, or unpleasant body odor.
• A loss of active friendships, including outings with friends, visits with neighbors, or participation in religious or other group activities.
• Days spent without leaving the house, perhaps because of difficulty driving or a fear of using public transportation.
• Is someone checking in regularly? If not, is there a home-safety alarm system, a personal alarm system, or a daily calling service in place?
• Is someone nearby to assist if there’s a fire, earthquake, flood, or other disaster, and does the older resident understand plans for a catastrophe?
• Mail in a chaotic state, scattered about, and unopened. Are there unpaid overdue bills, surprising thank-you notes from charities, or piles of unread magazines?
• If an older relative is still driving, go along for a ride and look for failure to fasten the seat belt or heed dashboard warning lights, signs of tension, preoccupation or distraction while driving, or damage to the vehicle that may indicate carelessness.
• In the kitchen, signs of excess or forgetfulness, like perishables well past their expiration dates.
• Favorite appliances are broken but not scheduled for repair.
• Signs of fires. Look for charred stove knobs or pot bottoms, potholders with burned edges, or a discharged fire extinguisher. Do smoke and carbon monoxide detectors have live batteries?
• A once-neat home now cluttered, spills that were not cleaned up, grime coating bathroom and kitchen appliances, or an overflowing laundry basket.
  Neglected plants or pets.
• Signs of neglect outside the home, like broken windows, debris-filled gutters and drains, uncollected rubbish, and an overstuffed mailbox.
• Ask friends and neighbors whether your family member’s behavior has changed lately.
• Ask the person’s doctor whether you should be concerned about the person’s health or safety and whether a home assessment by a geriatric care manager may be advisable. If you expect resistance from the person, ask the doctor to “prescribe” a professional evaluation.
• If you are the primary caregiver, how are you doing? Are you increasingly exhausted, depressed, or becoming resentful of the sacrifices you have to make to care for the person?
• Consider your older relative’s emotional state. If she is riddled with anxieties or increasingly lonely, then it may be time to make a move for reasons other than health and safety.

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Being discharged from a hospital?

If you have a parent or loved one who has recently been in the hospital, then you know the anxiety and worry of ensuring they stay safe and healthy when they return home. What if they don’t understand the doctor’s instructions? What if they forget their medication? Who will make sure they are okay?

According to the Center for Technology and Aging, one in five patients age 65 and older are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, and 76% of these readmissions are preventable. Readmission means time away from the comfort and independence of healing at home, as well as additional medical expense. A Transition Nurse Educator can assist in this transition from hospital back to home.

"I hope you understood what the doctor said…
I did not understand a thing."

As an experienced, licensed Registered Nurse (RN), he/she can strengthen an older adult’s network of support, teach effective management of health care issues, and provide connections to available community-based care systems. You can feel confident knowing that your parent or loved one is being carefully guided, helped, and monitored for their safety and well-being.

What can the Transition Nurse Educator do?

• Go to the hospital and help plan for a smooth transition back to the home, meeting with you or your loved one, family, and medical staff.
• Conduct a home visit and provide medical compliance education and a safety check.
• Ensure that you or your loved one has the necessary medical equipment, including blood pressure cuff, scale, and medicine
• container.
• Monitor medical compliance before and after home visit(s) by phone, responding to concerns and questions following hospitalization.
• Review medical issues and respond to concerns and questions.
• Set up necessary services including transportation, meal delivery, legal services, physical therapy, home health nursing, etc.
• Accompany you or your loved one to followup doctor appointment(s).
• Provide home visits as often as needed to review and educate regarding the individual’s medical issues.

For more information, contact Bobbi Jacobs at (858) 637-3040 or bobbij@jfssd.org.

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Referral Application for vendors serving the elderly
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