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A Special Message From The President
"After my mother passed on two years ago, I was determined to not let others learn the hard lessons my wife and I learned over a period of seven years."
Dear National Eldercare Alliance Members:
Long-term care is something most people think they won't need or have to be faced with - either for themselves or a loved one. However, a day of realization comes when the phone rings and it's a loved one that needs help or you suddenly find that taking a morning shower has become dangerous.
That day of realization came to for my family in 1996 when I answered the phone and my mother-in-law said she needed help and was unable to live alone any longer. We were happy to help, and since I was retired at the time, my wife and I both began the process to get her care. We first moved her into an independent living facility. However, over the period of a year, my wife went from spending one hour a day with her mother, to spending eight to twelve hours a day at the facility.
Our next step was to move my mother-in-law into our home. My wife went through four years of physically and emotionally exhausting work. Sleep was almost non-existent over the last six months of those four years. My mother-in-law then passed away at our home. She left us with a tremendous sense of love and loss because she had become an important part of my family's daily life.
Looking back, I now can see that along the way we had made many mistakes. Financially, we had assumed that the care would be covered by Medicare. Obviously, that was an erroneous assumption. We tried to cut corners on care by getting the lowest cost caregivers we could find instead of using a professional agency. We learned the hard way by dealing with missing jewelry, missing medications, and suspected abuse. Our children were no longer the center of our attention since my wife now had a full time job that continued 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Shortly after my mother-in-law passed my mother began dialysis treatments and quickly became in need of care. We had learned from our experience with my mother-in-law and moved my mother into an assisted living facility. We felt this was the best option because she could get the care and companionship she needed, and we could do what we did best... give her our love and support.
After my mother passed on two years ago, I was determined not to let others learn the hard lessons my wife and I learned over a period of seven years. During the months that followed I spoke at senior seminars, helping educate seniors about their long-term care options and what to look for and what to avoid. As you can imagine, my wife and I are strong advocates of long-term care insurance and the benefits it brings to those in need of long-term care.
This website is designed educate seniors and their families on the options for care and how to finance that care. We have also discovered that many seniors pay top dollar for care when, with a little guidance and the help of an experienced advocate, they can save significant dollars on their care.
I hope you find this website both informative and useful. Each of our staff works with our members with one thought in mind - "Would I send my own mother or father to receive care from this facility or provider?"
Dedicated to Audrey Jones, my mother, and Ethel Ellis, my mother-in-law.
Sincerely,
Ron H. Jones
President
National Eldercare Alliance
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