Orientation at Family Private Care energizes the atmosphere! It includes many faces… and many facets… Employees share facts with attendees about what it takes to be the caregiver clients want most. Contracts are carefully explained. The finance area shares how the reimbursement process works, and handbooks are distributed. As the last step in the registration process for caregivers, FPC endeavors to ensure that registrants receive a first-rate interactive information session.
I am going to write from my heart today on an issue that is very near and dear to me and that is the security of our senior population. As we all know the economy has taken a severe hit in the last couple of years and this has taken a real toll on all of us. One of the side effects is individuals who have lost jobs and are looking for a way to replace lost income. Seniors have become easy prey. Family Private Care has been involved in home care since 1997. We have seen more and more individuals opting out of using a reputable company for hiring a home care worker in order to save money. They instead go directly to the worker and hire them privately.
This is a very dangerous thing to do for several reasons. One of the most important is the background of the individual. We have frequently gone through the registration of an individual who appears as angelic as the angel Gabriel – only to run their criminal background check to find they have a history of criminal activity. We have begun the process on many individuals who we know were hired privately prior to registering with Family Private Care, and who were not able to meet state-mandated standards; so were unable to register with Family Private Care.
For the most part privately hired caregivers are uncertified, unlicensed, and untrained individuals. Let me share with you the required process caregivers must go through who register with Family Private Care.
All caregivers who walk through Family Private Care doors first of all take a test. The test determines their understanding of home care, the knowledge of their skill level, and grasp of the English language. They must pass this test with a 70% or higher in order to proceed with registration.
They then meet one-on-one with a trained staff member who discusses their home care experience, gets to know their personality, and whether or not they will be a good fit for Family Private Care and vice versa. If all are in agreement, the caregiver then begins the actual registration process. Here are the items Family Private Care requires for caregivers to register:
In addition to this registration process the caregiver attends an orientation class at Family Private Care to review client-focused issues. By the end of the orientation Family Private Care knows whether or not we want to represent this caregiver. Only after the orientation is completed and the registration file is final is the caregiver referred to a client from Family Private Care. At this point it depends on the clients’ feedback on whether or not caregivers continue to receive referrals from Family Private Care.
You only have to pick up the latest newspaper, or listen to the stories on the 5 O’clock News to hear the horror stories of unlicensed, non-screened caregivers to know bad things can happen. Please, make sure you are putting enough precautions in place to give your loved one and you the peace of mind you deserve. Let me urge you to use licensed private care companies who have sterling reputations in your area to meet your home care needs and keep you safe, secure and well cared for in the comfort of your own home.
Deborah Irvine, President, Family Private Care
We cannot make more time, so it is a good thing to use it wisely. How do you spend your time? Are you a spendthrift? Do you waste it or try to stop it? Time does not stand still and it doesn’t really speed up or slow down. Every day gives you 24 hours. No more. No less.
As the years slip by and time seemingly becomes more valuable with every passing hour we find we treasure those “Kodak Moments” more. Capturing these “timeless” times on camera and video allows us to share, reflect and treasure them. What a great way to “capture” time!
We watch our clocks and watches, and depending on the situation, we wish the time would hurry or stop. Like the time I got to chaperone an energetic group of teens for a weekend trip. Just as an experienced friend told me … it came and went so quickly, that only the memory remains.
In this day of watching our dollars spending time wisely is money in the bank. We hear of more shoppers now mapping out their shopping strategies quite like an Army sergeant by stopping at the stores in vicinity sequence, and fueling their auto along the way.
Time flies. Reflecting back on childhood is a short time-journey. Anticipating future events often distorts the time element. But being “in the moment” and treasuring these moments is the ultimate in being time wise.
Being time wise takes time. Take the time to learn from time wise pros…and enjoy the journey!
FPC Blog Editor: Janene Fiala
Doris Haas and Margurite Shevak
Marguerite Shevak, Family Private Care’s Broward County Community Director, met recently with Doris Haas of Atlas Care Management.
Doris Haas is the owner of Atlas Care Management & Eldercare Mediation. She has 30 years of experience as a Registered Nurse and is also a Certified Case Manager, Care Manager Certified, Dementia Care Specialist, and Florida Supreme Court Certified County Mediator. She serves clients in North Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties.
Doris was recently published in the January-February 2012 Today’s Caregiver Magazine with an article entitled, “Why Try Mediation?” It can be viewed at www.caregiver.com.
Visit Atlas Care management’s Web site at www.atlascaremanagement.com.
On January 12, 2012 the Indian River State College Fielden Institute for Lifelong Learning Distinguished Lecture Series presented the topic, “Immigration – The Issue that Just Won’t Go Away.”
Ellen Peitz, Laura Kelley, Muzaffar Chishti, Deborah Irvine, Denise Dublin
Muzaffar Chishti, Migration Policy Institute Director, New York University School of Law, discussed the contentious debate and the reasons the issue was moved from the margins to the center of the political debate. He talked about the combustible combination of facts, policy and politics. Twenty-eight percent of US immigrants are unauthorized and 5.5 million children in the USA have at least one unauthorized parent.
Mr. Chishti talked about the outdated immigration program that was originated in 1951 and that the program is broken. He talked about why immigration reform has not happened in the US. The reform was hijacked by political paralysis that has gripped the reform process since the tragedy that happened on September 11, 2001.
Family Private Care is proud to be the Presenting Sponsor of the IRSC Distinguished Lecturer Series. The next program will be on February 9. George Sack, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry of Johns Hopkins University School for Medicine and Medical Director, Johns Hopkins USA will discuss “The Future of Personalized Medicine”.
“O” is for Organization
A new year. New resolutions. New thoughts … but the same old unorganized life? “Oh, if I could just get organized!” You can!
Organization does not have to be a foreign language to you. If you like puzzles or seeing loose ends come together organization can be a rewarding activity. One organization tip is to get the adult members of your family to create a Personal Records Management solution.
To help give you confidence as you begin organizing you will find an unusual list below that will be great to have easily accessible. A personal executor may need to have access to the following at a moment’s notice:
| All Bank account information and the phone number of the bank. Also list where hard copy checks are kept. |
| A Birth certificate … and if yours has been misplaced it is simple to order an official copy. |
| Brokerage account numbers and their contact info. If you have Web site account information and passwords most of these accounts can easily be accessed online. |
| Computer access and Web site passwords are very important for your executor to have in order to close down any open online e-mail services, subscriptions, online bank accounts, etc. |
| Provide the contact information of professionals who have assisted the family and who the executor may need to contact. |
| Provide your executor with all personal health records. You might not realize it but this information is important to your family’s future generations. If you have children who are minors, take the time now to organize their personal health records. |
| It could be quite awkward for your executor to trip off your alarm or not know how it works should you not be around, so add to your list your home alarm code and instructions. |
| Make sure life and health insurance policies can be easily located along with policy numbers and any agent or company. |
| Military discharge papers will be required if military benefits are due to your beneficiaries. |
| If you are an organ donor, without proper documentation, your wishes will not be honored. |
| If you have one, or many safe deposit boxes, make sure you leave clear instructions as to where they are, location of the keys, and how the executor can access them. |
| Of the utmost importance for identification and benefit claims – not just your Social Security number and card, but the SS number of your beneficiaries, including minor children. |
| If you have created any type of trust your executor will need to be able to locate and access all of the governing trust documents. |
FPC Blog Editor: Janene Fiala
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