Making Good Choices for Senior Care with Nurse Navigator
When the time comes that your senior is inflicted with a chronic disease or a disabling condition, you want to make sure that you can provide them premium health care that can accommodate their needs. There are various options for long term care setting, but how do you choose? Where do you start? A nurse navigator can help you with this.
It is undeniable that most family members are too busy with their own schedules at work, school, and personal lives. Therefore, they are unable to act as the family caregivers. The family then assesses the situation and decides to take their loved ones in a nursing home or an assisted living facility that will not only be the senior’s place for care but also his new home for quite a long time.
This decision is often challenged by a variety of factors. Sometimes, the family lacks information about the available care setting. Similarly, they do not have enough resources to convince them that this choice is better than the other. Having someone to assist them and guide them through this difficult time can make the situation more manageable for the family. What is more important too, is that with someone to help them go through all the complexities of choosing a place for care, families can be sure that they can make good choices when it comes to their senior’s care.
Most people think that there are only two choices when it comes to care setting, the nursing home and the assisted living facility. Well, this is a misconception that must be corrected. While the two are the most common and are the frequent choices, there are still other options such as rehabilitation facilities, inpatient behavioral health facilities, and long-term chronic care hospitals. A nurse navigator can help families determine where among these places can their senior’s health care needs be better addressed and provided. With their help, the selection process becomes quick and accurate.
Usually, this navigator is a person, but today, there are already programs within health care or long term care insurance websites that perform the tasks of the person. However, discussing your loved one’s health personally with an expert is more preferable as you can already shoot all your questions and get instant answers.
Seeking help from professionals also allow family to find resources on agencies that can help them with their long term care choices. Also, they can get a shortlist of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other senior care facilities within their area.
A nurse navigator can help families limit their choices and identify what are the factors that must be considered in choosing the right care setting. In addition, he can provide insights on how to compare the quality of nursing homes that they are considering. Families can truly save time, effort, and money in having an expert take them through all the essentials in making the best decisions for their elder’s care.