Are you ready to have the 'Talk' with your aging loved one? Thursday, February 18 @ 6 pm

• Have you noticed changes in behavior and memory in your loved one and want to talk with them about your observations and don’t know where to start?
• Are you concerned you’ll upset your loved one if you bring up the subject of dementia?
• Are you wanting to talk with other family members about the situation but not sure how to handle their responses?

These are just a few of the scenarios Pam Ostrowski, author of It’s Not That Simple: Helping Families Navigate the Alzheimer’s Journey, will discuss during her presentation. Author, Pam will cover the most frequent communications challenges family members face when talking about planning for the future of an aging loved one, from when to start the conversations to possible wording during conversations. Bring your questions to ask Pam so you have real-life takeaways from this valuable webinar.

Book Excerpt:
Does this sound familiar? You get a call from a family friend or your loved one’s neighbor expressing concern over their repetitive questions, lack of ability to remember words consistently, weight loss, an unclean home, or a lack of personal care, or other behavior changes.
You sit down with your loved one and go over this feedback using the “People have been noticing {insert observations here} about you. How do you feel you’re doing?” phrasing so that they don’t get too defensive.
Then your loved one says, “I’m fine. You’re just trying to put me away in a home,” or other similar responses. If they live with a spouse or partner, that individual, too, might be resistant to this topic since they know their world is about to change in a very significant way.
My answer to the question, “When should we start talking about long-term care?” is, “The sooner the better,” while everyone is healthy and emotions are calmer. Once symptoms start manifesting, you’ll encounter denial, anger, fear, and a host of other unpleasant emotions that can cloud making the right decisions for your loved one.
Book Excerpt:
All those close to your loved one need to understand what factors come into play in this decision. The increased severity level of these factors will trigger the move to a new place to call home.
Allow me to be clear here. This is not the “should we purchase long-term care insurance or not?” conversation. This is the “how will we know when it’s time to move into long-term care?” conversation. Many people assume their doctor will tell your loved one when it’s time to move to assisted living. It seems increasingly not to be the case. For some reason, the medical profession errs on the side of being non-committal on recommendations regarding the timing of moving into long-term care.