Patricia and Rita’s Description of Aging With Grace

Aging with Grace is the solution for labor and management to accommodate an aging societies shifting needs and handling of eldercare issues with respect and dignity allowing all to age with grace. We approach each situation on an individual basis with patience, understanding and expert knowledge to offer the best solution and resources.

Advances in medicine and technology are allowing people to live longer, resulting in the need for many individuals active in the work force to be faced with the need to manage their loved ones’ eldercare needs.

Patricia Grace and Rita Files have created the solution to elder care stress in the work place through Aging with Grace. Their extensive working knowledge of programs serving older adults and experience in long-term care services, organizations, policies and financing across the continuum to include nursing homes, assisted living and Alzheimer’s Care allows them to lead and guide individuals on eldercare issues that are relevant and critically important to all and that can provide distractions and increased stress on employees.  Their focus is on reducing or eliminating the emotional impact that aging issues have not only for an individual but also, for the entire family.

The Aging with Grace Program embraces three specific areas of concentration: education, coordination, and facilitation:

• Education: regarding care options (nursing care, Alzheimer’s care, home care, etc), financial obligations, caregiver issues and stress, funding options including the VA Pension for Aid & Attendance and Medicaid and Medicare.
• Coordination: for the selection of providers, referrals to physicians, elder care attorney’s, financial planners, senior relocation specialists and acting as liaison with families at a distance.
• Facilitation: for placement in senior living communities, nursing homes, in-home services or adult day care.

Unique Business Model

Rita Files

The Aging with Grace Program is primarily a membership model that is being marketed to unions, large employer groups and benefit consultants, who in turn market the program to their employees and members as a “voluntary benefit.”  The annual fee is $34.95 per year for individuals Union Plus members are offered the program for $24.95 per year. The AWG Program is also available to large groups who wish to provide this program as a paid benefit for their members.

The program includes:

• Unlimited telephone access, to experienced elder care specialists for assistance with immediate needs, program and enrollment information.
• Access to a dedicated area on the AWG website that includes resource information and a Caregiver Tool Kit and tips for managing caregiver stress.
• Member discounts for senior services and programs from participating providers negotiated by AWG exclusively for members.
• Provider quality assurance program as well as member satisfaction programs.
• Online member caregiver support group
• Monthly caregiver newsletter

About Patricia Grace

With over 18 years experience in the senior health field, Patricia Grace recognized the needs of our aging population and their families and founded Aging with Grace. As a Certified Senior Advisor, she offers in depth knowledge on Medicare/Medicaid and Long Term Care insurances. Ms. Grace has worked extensively in the assisted living and long term care industry educating the elderly and their children on senior housing, Alzheimer’s care, home care and adult day care options. She appears frequently on TV and radio discussing topics from senior housing to care giver stress in the work place.

Patricia has been actively involved in community and non profit organizations such as the Twilight Wish Foundation, CAPS, Society of Certified Senior Advisors, National Association of Certified Geriatric Care Managers, Eastern PA Geriatric Council and the American Society on Aging. She will serve as Co-Chair for the 2008 East Coast Aging Conference.

About Rita Files

Ms. Files is a nationally recognized “subject matter expert” on the knowledge and skills needed for working with the elderly. She has over 28 years in the healthcare industry, with 16 years focused primarily on eldercare. Her background includes program development for many leading providers in the senior living industry. Ms. Files works with families to make eldercare transitions a peaceful process rather than an emotional roller coaster.  With her partner, Patricia Grace, they have developed an innovative approach to provide the services and resources needed by today’s working caregivers.

In addition to her nursing experience, Ms. Files holds both state and national certifications in Assisted Living Administration and is a Certified Senior Advisor® through The Society of Certified Senior Advisors™, a Member of the Case Management Society of America, and the American Society on Aging.

Contact Information

www.agingwithgrace.net

Phone: 800-626-9440

How Elias Papasavvas Describes Elder Life Financial

I believe that deep down just about every one of us is willing to give back to our parents. They were there holding our hands when we were young and vulnerable and now, when asked to hold theirs, I believe we do so, and gladly. It may not be simple, it may not be easy, but it is so.  I remember the happiness which would envelop me as a young boy whenever I kicked the ball with my dad, or enjoyed my mom’s cooking after playing all day, and having her rub my head saying I was a good kid that day. It’s the simple memories that over time, transcribe a fascinating family story.

I founded Elderlife Financial Services in the year 2000 with the spirit of helping families give back to their parents.  The banking industry at large neither understands the depth of complex family dynamics involved in caring for a loved one, nor does it know how to expediently and wholly service the family members involved in what is frequently a family decision – what to do for mom or dad.  And frequently associated with that family decision, is the issue of how to pay for things.  While there are numerous professional advisors serving useful and much needed roles, there were few consumer financing options available to help a family pay for senior living and designed to respond to the family as a unit throughout the entire care-giving journey.

Thus was born Elderlife Financial Services, and the Elderlife Line of Credit for Senior Living. Elderlife’s mission is to help families honor their parents.  We do so by helping seniors and their families access the senior living of their choice through simple, convenient financial options we create with thought and care. Frequently the Elderlife Line of Credit is used as an immediate funding bridge to help a loved one move into a private pay assisted living community until a home is sold, veterans benefits arrive, or if a family simply wants breathing room and time to make the move now. Elderlife enables families the breathing room to take their time before making financial decisions that could have long-term implications.

Often, the product is not what makes Elderlife unique (i.e., a line of credit is a line of credit and thousands of banks offer one).  Rather, it is the way with which Elderlife serves multiple family members, the speed with which it responds to the family’s need, the counseling and empathy it understands to lend in the process, the collaboration with senior care advisors and financial planners during a loved one’s move to senior living, and the “little things” that are helpful as a family is in the midst of a thousand other worries on behalf of a loved one.  This is but an inkling of what we do for families.

Today, the Elderlife Line of Credit is accepted in 2,500 senior living communities across the nation and Elderlife is the national leader in helping families finance their loved ones assisted living costs. And yet, I wake up every day rushing to work, knowing there is still so much more for us to do in our quest to help families honor their parents.

About Elias Papasavvas

Elias is the founder and chief executive officer of Elderlife Financial Services LLC.  Elias has focused his career on enhancing access to senior living.  He spent over a decade studying the impact and proper administration of consumer financing in higher education and numerous other service- and product-oriented industries prior to creating a consumer financing program for senior living. Today, Elderlife is accepted in over 2,500 senior living communities nationwide.  Elderlife’s uniqueness lies in its understanding of the various, and at times competing, needs of the senior housing provider and the family.

Before entering the senior living industry, Elias was a CPA in the Banking and Real Estate Mid-Atlantic Division of Arthur Andersen. He holds a B.S. degree from George Mason University and a Master’s of Science in Accounting from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. Elias also serves on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Assisted Living Association and on the Advisory Board of the George Mason University Assisted Living program.  Elias is a frequent speaker at aging and senior living conferences on the need for affordable access to senior living and is viewed as a respected authority on the field of consumer financing for senior living.

Ellen Dunnigan combines dementia care with a 360-degree home care philosophy to provide a unique option for families struggling with dementia or Alzheimer’s.  The Sollievo model is one of many unique care models that are emerging as we grapple with how to care for our elders.  What I found interesting about Ellen’s approach is her keen attention on serving the seniors AND providing stress relief to the family.

How Ellen Describes Sollievo

Sollievo is a care management network for families caring for an aging parent. We provide expert answers and relief to the daughters and sons who have taken on the exhausting caregiving of a parent who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.

Typically we guide daughters who are trying to be both SuperMom and SuperDaughter, doing one job all day and then coming home in the evening to start the even tougher job.

They are stressed out, tired of being tired, and feeling guilty; consumed with trying to be the “answer” to everyone including their siblings in other states.  They wish someone else could help them without getting in the way.  And they need just-in-time resources to safely keep their mother or father at home longer.

Our process begins with a three-pronged assessment of the living environment, the well-being of the person diagnosed with dementia, and the burdens placed on family caregivers. We supply education and clarify expectations. We tailor strategies to make the days and nights better. Our 24/7 helpline is always answered live to address their immediate concerns. And most importantly we deliver the “just right” answers and network of services the first time, and every time.

About Ellen Dunnigan

As a strategist healthcare product development, and a Speech-Language Pathologist, Ellen Dunnigan has produced several healthcare product lines including Alzheimer’s care, Geri-psych programs, diabetes care, traumatic brain injury programs, and others.  She has developed a balanced model of Alzheimer’s care for the long-term care segment which guides caregivers to exceptional results in patient care and meaningful resident days.  Additionally, she has initiated a first-of-its-kind community model for the coordinated care of families caring for an aging parent diagnosed with dementia.

Ellen has a Masters degree in Speech-Language Pathology, certification in gerontology and case management.  She is the author of several best practice clinical and operational methods in Alzheimer’s care and speaks internationally.  She founded Alzheimer’s Care Group in 2002 and has grown it to a nationwide consulting firm specializing in healthcare strategy.  Alzheimer’s Care Group has five associates and operates in care settings in 30 states.  Their community resource network is called “Sollievo” and operates throughout Indiana, with plans to expand to neighboring states.

Contact Information

Sollievo office:  317-218-5111
24-hour Helpline:  317-753-7447

Info@BeHomeLiveLife.com

www.BeHomeLiveLife.com

Suzanne Andrews is an occupational therapy practitioner and host of PBS TV’s Functional Fitness.  Suzanne specializes in increasing peoples functional ability through medically engineered fitness techniques for the over 40 population.

Functional Fitness doctor-recommended DVD’s are the only medically engineered programs that offer you the opportunity to increase your functional ability and focus on real-life fitness for real-life challenges.

Whether you need to decrease stiffness and pain caused from arthritis, lose weight, improve your balance, increase your flexibility, get thicker, stronger bones because of osteoporosis, or improve the health of your neck and back, Suzanne Andrews vast therapeutic exercise knowledge will increase your health with special consideration on safety and injury prevention.

In addition to overall strength and well-being, Functional Fitness is customized to address many common elder care medical issues, including:

• Arthritis relief
• Pain-free neck & back
• Bone building
• Brain power
• Diabetes
• Fat-burning
• COPD/asthma