Hi patrickgerard:
First off, I want to say I think it's great that your Mom is
as keen as she is at starting a new career direction at 60.
It's been my experience that seniors often make the best
students and excel at new careers. As well, given your Mom's
age, she is also much more likely to be able to relate with
her future clients more meaningfully than someone of a much
younger age.
I've organized the information I found for you into a few
separate areas...
1. What's involved in geriatric care management?
[I'm sure your Mom's already done some research on this, but
you can never have too much information about a new career.]
Most definitions of a geriatric care manager (GCM) that I found
were similar to this one from The National Association of
Professional Geriatric Care Managers:
"A geriatric care manager is a professional who specializes
in assisting older people and their families in meeting their
long-term care arrangements. GCM’s have training in gerontology,
social work, nursing, or counseling."
URL: http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/ProfCareManagers.htm
The URL above also contains several concrete examples of the
sort of things your Mom might be doing on a day-to-day basis
as a GCM. I suggest that you and your Mom read through it to
see if there are any surprises there.
2. Training and Accreditation
It certainly seems to me that your Mom will need some training
and accreditation to be successful as a GCM. Most websites that
deal with helping people find a GCM rank the following
question very highly:
* What are your professional credentials?
For example, from the Aging Parents and Adult Children
Together (A/PACT) website:
"Ask about candidates’ training, education and background in
care management and geriatrics. Ask how long they’ve been a
GCM and whether they belong to the National Association of
Professional Geriatric Care Managers or any other professional
associations."
URL: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/services/apact/apact08.htm
Let's look at what it takes to become a member of the National
Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (which
certainly seems to be the premier association in this field.
The requirements, while fairly heavy, also provide a decent amount
of latitude with respect to which type of degrees are required.
To be listed as a Care Manager (and be a voting member), you must
satisfy one of the following:
"A. A person who holds a baccalaureate, masters or Ph.D. degree
with at least one degree held in a field related to care
management, i.e. counseling, nursing, mental health, social
work, psychology or gerontology; is primarily engaged in the
direct practice, administration or supervision of client-centered
services to the elderly and their families; and has two years of
supervised experience in the field of gerontology following the
completion of the degree.
B. Non-degreed RNs and other individuals with a baccalaureate,
masters or Ph.D. degree, who are primarily engaged in the
direct practice, administration or supervision of client-centered
services to the elderly and their families and have three years
supervised experience in the field of gerontology."
URL: http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/Qualificationslink.htm
The above URL also lists how to become an affiliate (non-voting)
member:
"A non-voting member who does not meet the criteria in the
above sections (Article 4, section 1, subsections 1a and 1b),
but has an interest in care management including: educators
and researchers, practicing, degreed care managers not yet meeting
the supervision criteria, non-degreed care managers, with a
minimum of high school diploma, students, individuals not in
direct practice of care management, but have any interest in
the field (i.e. individuals representing home health agencies,
nursing homes, assisted living facilities, elder law attorneys, etc.)"
While being an affiliate would certainly help, I am going to
assume that your Mom would rather become a full member and
therefore needs to fulfil the more stringent criteria.
If you can give me some more idea of your Mom's current level
of education and any degrees she already has, that would help
me find some schools local to her (both now and when she
eventually moves as you've indicated) where she could get
the needed training. As well, if you could tell me which area
of the GCM spectrum your Mom is most interested in (counseling,
nursing, mental health, social work, psychology or gerontology),
that would also help me focus any further information.
3. Contacts and Sites
I would definitely suggest that the first people that your
Mom contacts should be the National Association of Professional
Geriatric Care Managers. The people there can provide her
with a wealth of information about what she needs to do to
fulfill her dream.
The contact information for this association is:
National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers
1604 N. Country Club Road
Tucson, AZ 85716-3102
520-881-8008
520-325-7925 FAX
http://www.caremanager.org
Some individuals she might want to speak to personally are:
Membership Information
Jenifer Mowery
ext. 114
membership@caremanager.org
Education Committee
Erica Karp
erica@nseldercare.com
A host of other departments/people to contact can be found at:
http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/Feedback1.htm
They also have regional chapters. In your area there's:
Mid-Atlantic Region (includes Delaware):
http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/chapters/midatlantic.htm
Southeast Chapter (includes Delaware):
http://www.caremanager.org/gcm/chapters/southeast.htm
These pages include contact information and meeting dates.
Another great resource for your Mom is the website Elderweb.com,
which describes itself as follows:
"This award-winning site is designed to be a research site for
both professionals and family members looking for information
on eldercare and long term care, and includes links to information
on legal, financial, medical, and housing issues, as well as
policy, research, and statistics. Thousands of other sites link
to ElderWeb, and it has received numerous Web awards and press
mentions. ElderWeb has been used extensively by journalists
and students doing research, and by professionals looking for
Internet resources, as well as by family members looking for
help for their elderly relatives."
URL: http://www.elderweb.com/default.php?PageID=163&Version=0&Font=0
The immense amount of information here also contains areas for
each state and what laws and regulations govern them. The pages
for the two states of interest to your Mom are:
Delaware:
http://www.elderweb.com/default.php?PageID=1235&Version=0&Font=0
North Carolina:
http://www.elderweb.com/default.php?PageID=1470&Version=0&Font=0
Another association that might have valuable information is the
Society of Certified Senior Advisors at:
http://society-csa.com/
It might also help you to look at a few websites created for
existing GCMs to get an idea of how they "advertise" themselves.
Try the following for starters:
Nancy Wexler, Gerontology Associates:
http://www.nancy-wexler.com/
Advanced Geriatric Care Management
http://www.aboutagcm.com/
Aging Concerns
http://www.agingconcerns.com/
I hope that all this information is helpful to you and your Mom.
Please, if you require any clarification of what I've provided,
please ask using the Clarification feature before you rate this
answer.
Thanks.
websearcher-ga
Search Strategy on Google:
"geriatric care manager" OR "geriatric care management"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22geriatric+care+manager%22+OR+%22geriatric+care+management%22 |
Request for Answer Clarification by
patrickgerard-ga
on
30 Sep 2002 16:29 PDT
Dear Websearcher,
First off I was super impressed with your answer, as were my parents.
My dad wants me to post one for him now! And my mom was inspired.
Great work!
Anyway, sorry for the delay in asking for clarification; I hope you
remember this question.
Update question:
Mom doesn't have a college degree but I think the affiliate
(non-member) status would be just fine for her purposes. More
important is short term training she can get. So training options in
the Newark, DE/Souteast PA area would be great. The other area is the
Pinehurst are of North Carolina (for next year or the year after).
As for which aspects of GCM are right for her, it's clear that her
focus is on the human end: being the person who will keep everything
going and advocate on the client's behalf. If she's motivated to help
someone, often a stranger, there's nothing that gets in her way. I
think she'd be a good coordinator in that regard.
From your research, these are the things she'd be good at:
-In-Home Assessments and Evaluation of Needs
-Arrangements and Monitoring of Home Care
-Monitoring/Coordinating Services and Service Providers
-Evaluation of Housing Alternatives
-Referrals to Attorneys, Physicians, Financial Advisors
-Consultation
-Counseling
-Crisis Intervention
-Referrals to Transportation Services, Senior Housing, Nursing Homes
-Companionship Services
All of these are Mom's strengths.
Thanks again for your great work, and I look forward to seeing what
else you come up with!
Patrick
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