For 14 years, I helped my parents successfully achieve their one greatest wish: Growing old in the home they built and loved.
But it wasn’t easy and knowing what I know now, I would do it all differently…

 


My goal is to help families and the adult children of aging parents navigate elder care.  Providing support for aging parents so they can retain their independence as long as possible sometimes begins slowly and for others it's one life changing event.  

 

For my family, it was a long and difficult journey. In fact, the last seven years were brutal, filled with:

  • Alternating trips to the hospital
  • Constantly changing priorities
  • Decreasing personal independence

It was stressful when one parent was in the hospital, and the other remained at home, unable to be independent.


But it was even worse when both were hospitalized at the same time, and in different facilities.

At the beginning of my elder care journey, It didn't occur to me what a high price I would pay; the cost to my health, business and finances.  I have since learned the cost (health, income, savings) to adult children caring for their parents or loved ones' is often a surprise but has been studied and documented.

 

Life Prior to Caregiving


When my parents’ health started to deteriorate, I was living on the West Coast, working as an internal consultant. (I have a BS in Business and an MBA and have worked with large corporations, both domestic and international.)

I was used to:

  • Very long days
  • Solving complicated issues
  • Working with a large number of people with differing views

When I moved back to the Midwest to help my family, I starting a consulting company that grew for more than a decade.  So, you can see how I thought my education and experience had prepared me for managing just about any difficult or complicated situation.

I was WRONG!

Though family dynamics did play a role, in retrospect it was a small one. (Even if it didn’t seem so small at the time.)

Challenges

The much bigger challenge proved to be:

  • Making the right decisions with limited time to research options and process information
  • Changes that came so quickly, it was hard to process one before the next arrived
  • Overwhelming volume of information & no time to filter, vet its' accuracy or relevance 
  • Juggling care giving, running a business, managing 2 households...

But, I was also challenged with:

  • Medical issues & dealing with the medical community
  • Making decisions with little medical background
  • Numerous & overlapping hospitalizations which each included hurried discharges with no notice and little time to prepare for a hospital bed, oxygen delivery and other necessary items.

 

I had a lot to learn about the many systems involved in Elder Care!

  • Legal and Financial systems
  • Health Insurance systems
  • Home Care systems (skilled, non-medical home care and Hospice)

Not to mention the many decisions and challenges of settling an estate.

And, of course, the myriad little things that tend to cause the most disruption, frustration – and are so surprisingly time consuming – was just plain overwhelming.

So, I took action…

I created this site and programs to change the way the adult children of aging parents navigate elder care.

My goal is to put you in the driver’s seat with the knowledge, appropriate tools, and solutions for each and every stage of your journey.


I started this company because of the lack of quality, unbiased information available to the public.

I want you to have an easier, more confident elder care journey – the kind of experience everyone deserves when faced with the responsibility of caring for aging loved ones’.

Knowledge is Power that Instills Confidence!

Every family’s journey is unique because each family is different.

I’ve developed an elder care solution that empowers today’s caregivers, no matter your situation, based on what I was able to learn during the more than four years that I spent interviewing and gathering information from professionals, including:

  • Elder law attorneys and estate attorneys
  • Financial consultants
  • Doctors and Nurses
  • Home care providers (both medical and non-medical)
  • Assisted living executives
  • Nursing home executives
  • Rehab facility executives.
  • Hospice and palliative care providers
  • Owners/Operators of funeral homes and the burial industry

 

The Solutions

I’ve done the research, compiled and organized the information, and filled in the gaps to make it easy for you to Navigate Elder Care.

I have two different program paths:

  1. Navigating Elder Care & Navigating Elder Care Advanced are for those that like having a road map with all the information at their fingertips,  
  2. For those that are faced with a life-changing decision and need a quick, but comprehensive program.  The Focus Series that will provide concise, comprehensive and unbiased information to prepare you in approximately 30 minutes to make decisions regarding Home Care, Assisted Living, Nursing Home or Rehabilitation Services.  

Here’s what Navigating Elder Care and Navigating Elder Care Advanced solutions do for you:

1. Provide concise, unbiased information from industry insiders about all the decisions you need to make so that you can ask the right questions and make the best choices for your family’s situation.

2. Prepare you for visits to attorneys, financial consultants, and doctors.

3. Promote better choices for home care, assisted living, rehabilitation and nursing home facilities, palliative care, hospice; and create transition plans when care giving needs increase.

4. Present options for managing and maintaining your current lifestyle.

This is exactly what I wanted – and could not find – during my own elder care journey.

And NOW – it’s what I’m committed to providing you and your loved ones!