Ohio Life Care Planning

Ohio life care planning for seniors can accurately be described as taking an elder-centered approach rather than an assets-centered approach. The life care planning model of elder law practice recognizes that helping seniors and their families with their financial concerns regarding how to pay for care is an important piece of the long-term care puzzle, but only one piece of the puzzle. The primary emphasis of the life care planning model of practice is on the quality of care that senior clients receive, and the quality of life they and their loved ones experience as they move through the long-term care maze. A life care planning firm helps clients navigate that maze by helping them find, get, and pay for quality long-term care.

Healthcare in this country is provided on an acute care model. When someone enters a hospital, the care providers seek to address a particular injury or illness, to cure or treat that acute need, to discharge the patient, and to move on to the next patient. But for seniors who have one or more chronic care issues, a different model of care is necessary. As the very nature of the term “chronic” implies, such needs do not go away and cannot be cured. Chronic illnesses simply change and progress over time. Therefore, an effective chronic care model of legal practice emphasizes continuity, an on-going relationship, and coordination over a long period of time.

Life care planning takes such an approach to the chronic care needs of clients, encompassing help with the financial and legal planning issues as well. The life care planning firm assists clients as they move along the elder care continuum, adapting with them as their healthcare circumstances change.

The goals of Life Care Planning are:  first, maximizing quality of life and independence; second, relieving caregiver stress and providing caregiver support to promote and maintain quality of care for the senior client; and third, minimizing unnecessary financial loss. 

Life Care Planning offers a lifetime of answers and a roadmap for total care. 

Be a smart shopper:  Life Care Planning is more than simply offering referrals to home care agencies, assisted living facilities, or nursing homes:  some attorneys use the phrase "life care planning" in describing their services, but don't have licensed social workers or geriatric care managers on staff, and do not provide comprehensive care coordination, only a referral service.  Life Care Planning is properly an ongoing relationship with the client providing a roadmap for total care encompassing advocacy, education and crisis intervention.  

Click below for further information regarding this innovative approach to an elder-centered elder law practice.

What is a Life Care Plan? 

The Elder Care Coordinator