Explore the Family and Medical Leave Act.See if they cover home health visits, mental health services, physical therapy, skilled nursing or other short-term assistance. See if your parent has disability coverage, life insurance, long-term care insurance, pension benefits and workplace health insurance. Examine insurance and retirement plans.Investigate public benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and veterans benefits. Getting their affairs in order is important. Keep informed and make adjustments in their care needs.Ī good elder care checklist should include a look at your parents’ finances. Meet with your parents’ doctors regularly.Contact Senior Lifestyle today to compare our various care offerings for your parents. Find out about in-home care, personal care homes and senior living. Decide what to do with their pets if your parents need to move. Put in writing family members’ caregiving roles, and stick to it. Some points to consider when caring for your parents:

As your parents’ needs change, so should your plan. But be aware that you should revisit your plan often. CaregivingĪny aging parents checklist should include a plan for how you give care to your parents. Here is a senior care checklist of things you should be aware of, and where to go for more information. Recently, we offered 12 Books to Read If You’re an Adult Caregiver. We have shared some ideas and helpful hints for adult children of aging parents on our Senior Lifestyle blog. It can be overwhelming to remember everything you should be doing and accounting for when you take on this responsibility. You’ll find the template and sample letters at /letter.There are many things to consider when you’ve decided to care for an aging parent. Add a last letter: VJ Periyakoil, a physician who specializes in geriatrics and palliative care at the Stanford University Medical Center, started the Stanford Letter Project, to give people the tools they need to write to their doctor, friends or family.I’ve picked a lovely black birch tree in the Berkshires through Better Place Forests to mark my final resting place. And I actually enjoyed researching the options and making goodbye plans for myself with a focus on a greener ending to my life than a traditional funeral and burial. Plan your goodbye party: Having attended several funerals, I don’t want my survivors to incur the expense or burden of planning one.Make a digital estate plan: This guide from AARP will help you manage utility accounts, credit cards and social media passwords.Services such as Nolo, LegalZoom or Quicken Willmaker can help for a fee. Without a will, the laws of the state will decide how your assets are distributed. Write a will: Gallup reports that less than half of Americans have a will.The website Five Wishes is also a popular resource, with easy-to-follow instructions for creating an advanced directive. This step is the one that most benefits you directly and will help your family make medical decisions on your behalf. Start by writing your advance directive: Go to the AARP website to find the right forms for your state.It will take some time, but the worksheet is a great way to keep track of what you have left to do. This AARP worksheet will get you started on compiling all the documents - medical, legal, financial and end-of-life - you need. You will need to create additional hard and digital copies once you’ve made some progress. Create a crisis notebook: For me, choosing a binder where I could gather all my planning documents is what finally got me started.

Aarp checklist for my family pdf