Incapacity Planning: Local Attorney Helps Families Avoid Healthcare and Estate Nightmares

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

When Menlo Park attorney John C. Martin was younger, a favorite aunt worked as an estate planning attorney.  She clearly enjoyed her work and shared stories of how she had saved families from various financial legal and financial nightmares.  Martin also watched the lack of proper estate planning hit close to home.  After his grandfather impulsively tore up his will, he died a few months later.  With no will or estate plan in place, settling the estate was indeed a nightmare.  Today Martin cites both these family influences as being professional inspirations for his work as an estate planning attorney.

“I enjoy counseling individuals one on one,” Martin says.  “And I try to save them from their own family nightmares when I can.”  As lead attorney in the Law Offices of John C. Martin, he works exclusively in the areas of legacy planning, estate and business succession planning, wealth preservation, and estate administration. 

A key component of his work is incapacity planning.  Martin notes that up to 44% of individuals will face a disability of more than two years’ duration during their lifetimes.  When a person’s mental or physical condition affects the ability to make financial or legal decisions, the results can be far-reaching.  He or she may become subject to state oversight and may face expensive legal proceedings such as conservatorship or guardianship. Decisions about health care may not be made according to one’s own preferences. And the planned legacy for an individual’s estate can also be impacted, as assets may not be adequately protected or probate disputes may arise.

When asked about the most critical elements of incapacity planning, Martin notes the importance of the right documentation, particularly for powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and revocable trusts.  He offers the following tips:

Powers of attorney – Not all powers of attorney (POAs) are created equal, Martin states.  Most individuals first need a basic document that assigns an agent to function in their behalf.  However, many individuals may also need a more prescriptive one.  Martin advocates “beefing up” a boilerplate POA with language that covers specific eventualities; e.g., the agent’s power to enter into long-term care contracts, such as agreements with in-home care facilities or providers.  California law now requires the POA to state whether an agent may consent to resolving disputes by arbitration in a nursing home contract, for example, so he recommends that the POA explicitly empower the agent in this regard.

Health care directives – For most individuals, Martin finds that a standard template will suffice, such as the California Medical Association’s form.  The advantage to a standardized form is that it can be readily reviewed in an emergency situation without delay.  However, sometimes a more detailed directive is needed, depending upon the unique needs of the individual.  For example, A Christian Scientist might elect to spell out the types of medical treatment that are acceptable for her care.  An individual newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease might want to outline the level of care that she would prefer at each stage of the progressive illness.

Revocable trusts – A key difference Martin notes between a revocable trust and a power of attorney is that a trustee has actual title on assets.  Because POAs do not create a change of title, agents may be required to submit documentation over and over again to demonstrate they are authorized to take certain actions.  A revocable trust can be an important tool for specifying an individual’s wishes over the later years in life.  In addition to protecting estate assets, the revocable trust can better position an individual to receive and finance the best health care options; e.g., laying the groundwork for a special needs trust or establishing alternative ways of producing income to fund later elder care needs.

In the arena of incapacity planning, Martin addresses everything from drafting HIPAA-compliant release authorizations (“What is the value in having a health care agent if your health information can’t be released to them?”) to establishing special needs trusts. His firm offers convenient and cost-effective client care programs, set up to deal with changing financial, legal, or health issues.  Periodic checks are made to ensure that clients’ directives are up to date and relevant, and basic document changes are made as needed.

“I work with both seniors and their family members, “Martin says.  “But I always remember that the client’s own wishes must be my first priority.”  By ensuring that these wishes are protected through the right legal planning and documentation, he also hopes to reduce the likelihood of an estate nightmare for another family.

 

Based in Menlo Park, the Law Offices of John C. Martin provide legal consultation to individuals and businesses throughout the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay areas. A magna cum laude graduate of UCLA, Martin received his J.D. from Boston College Law Schools and a Diplôme from L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France.  He is a 2010 recipient of the State Bar of California Wiley W. Manual Award.  For additional information on incapacity planning, please visit his website.

 

Household and Financial Management: Transformative Work with San Jose Area Seniors

Friday, February 10th, 2012

For Minda Cutcher, Financial Advocate for Seniors, her work is her passion. “My goal is to lift the burden of money management and household planning from seniors and/or their adult children so their visits together can be about quality of time vs. quantity of tasks.”  The service she provides is equal parts daily money manager and professional organizer.

A few short years ago, she was serving as a financial manager of a very different sort.  An MBA with degrees from Cornell and Northeastern and a background as a civil engineer, Cutcher was blazing trails in the corporate world.  She managed multi-million dollar budgets, led teams of several hundred employees, and handled billing and collections for companies with more than half a billion dollars in annual revenue.

Today, her work is not always so glamorous.  Cutcher often finds herself sitting across the table from an elderly client, helping balance a checkbook. In a typical day, she may pack boxes for a client’s cross-country move or scrutinize the fine print in a set of insurance claims.  

What changed?  The timely intersection of a tanking economy and her 93-year-old father’s need for more hands-on care led to a reassessment of priorities, both personal and professional. Around the time she was laid off from her finance manager position, she realized that her widowed father, living 3,000 miles away, needed her to apply her organizational expertise to his life.  When she discovered that his cleaning lady was helping him pay bills, she rolled up her sleeves.  One startling discovery: her father was eligible for veteran’s benefits for which he had not even applied.  And after his death, she was struck by the accumulated “business” of death – obtaining death certificates, contacting Social Security, stopping pension checks, and disposing of his estate.

Her epiphany came when she realized that other adult children as well as seniors needed assistance in navigating what she describes as the “financial challenges of aging.”  She established the office of Minda Cutcher, MBA, Inc. — and never looked back. 

As a Daily Money Manager and professional organizer, she applies her professional skills to four assistance areas for seniors:

• Household management services – managing household functions ranging from establishing a household budget to working with home contractors;
• Move management – providing assistance with downsizing, packing, and estate valuation and sales;
• Health care cost reduction – finding unclaimed benefits and ways to lower medical costs;
• Care management – linking clients to needed services and coordinating care and communications among seniors, their relatives, and members of the care giving team .

You can find further details about these services at Minda Cutchter’s website and blog.

Cutcher estimates that about half of her referrals are from seniors who contact her directly when they realize they need questions answered, records organized, or financial decisions made.  Often seniors will turn to a provider such as herself, rather than allowing themselves to appear vulnerable to their children.  The other half of her client base comes from adult children, who realize a parent needs assistance that they are unable to provide, due to lack of expertise, geographical distance, or other factors.  Cutcher notes that relieving an adult child of a managerial role with an older parent allows both parties to enjoy the familial relationship more.

Cutcher enjoys the support of a broad network of other service professionals to whom she can refer her clients.  She has worked closely with organizations such as ours, and her assistance and expertise often make a difference in the degree of independent living a senior can maintain, as well as their overall quality of life.

“What drives my passion,” Cutcher says, “and what is most rewarding to me, is to see the concern drain from the face of a worried son or daughter—to see them relax when they realize that things are taken care of.  Now they can focus on spending time with, and caring about, rather than caring for their parents.”

A recent comment from a client validates these words.  Cutcher was hired by an older woman’s daughter to downsize her mother’s household possessions and then move her from California to Pennsylvania.  As Robin S. describes:  “Minda’s role in my mother’s life has been transformative.  When I moved 3,000 miles away from my mother… I carried great anxiety over my ability to complete the organizational work I had started for her.  When I hired Minda, she worked a total transformation on my mother’s home the first week of her involvement.  Minda has been instrumental in transferring responsibility for my mother’s finances and personal administration to me, allowing me to secure my mother’s future.  Minda has my deep and lasting gratitude.”

For Minda Cutcher, she’ll take the transformative work of changing people’s lives by helping seniors over the corporate world any day.

Minda Cutcher, MBA, is a member of the American Association of Daily Money Managers and the National Association of Professional Organizers. She is a past Chair of the Board of Directors for Pathways Hospice Foundation and on the Board of Director for Senior Housing Solutions.

Independence at Home Organizations: A Better Healthcare Solution on the Horizon?

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

In a recent New York Times Opinion Pages essay, Dr. Jack Resnick, an internal medicine physician, describes his experience with a patient over a decade ago – an experience that changed his perception of hospital vs. home-based care.  He admitted a 48-year-old patient with quadriplegia to the hospital, suffering from a urinary tract infection.  Although his UTI was treated successfully, the patient developed a pressure sore, and became infected with a bacterium common in hospitals.  It was, unfortunately, resistant to antibiotics.  The patient, who had survived a gunshot wound during a robbery several years before, was felled by a common bedsore and died before he could leave the hospital.

 

Resnick describes how his practice has become one in which patients are treated in their homes whenever possible.  He cites findings from a veteran’s affairs study which found that patients participating in a home-based primary care program were able to reduce their days in the hospital by 62% and their nursing home stays by 88%. 

 

The recent health care reform act does include provisions for the establishment of Independence at Home Organizations, in which physician and nursing groups provide home-based care.   Resnick notes, however, that Medicare has not yet even issued the rules or application procedures that will begin the process.  The program was slated to begin January 1, but implementation is clearly not ready.

 

Resnick advocates that the medical community turn away from its “more is better” approach to health care.  Often the simplest treatment, at a patient’s bedside at home, is the best and safest care.  In the Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties area, Homecare California is a strong advocate for home-based care, as is the network of healthcare and elder care providers with whom we work.  We encourage you to learn more about the provisions of the healthcare reform that pertain to independence at home organizations.  Then let your voice be heard in support of the program’s speedy implementation.

 

The home-field advantage: Safety strategies for aging in place

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

The following article appeared in the January 11, 2012 edition of the Los Altos Town Crier.

 

“Who’s got it better than we do?” “Nobody!”

If you’ve been following the San Francisco 49ers this season, you know that’s the familiar dialogue between new coach Jim Harbaugh and his players. Harbaugh knows that winning in the NFL starts with a great defense. But as a former NFL quarterback, he knows the team won’t dominate until it has a top-five offense to match.

If you are an older adult, 2012 is a new season. It’s a time when you can develop offensive and defensive practices that will allow you to live safely at home for many years to come.

And in our later years, having a winning season may simply mean staying healthy and active for as long as possible. Unfortunately, an injury caused by an unnecessary fall can sideline you for many months. Often it’s that first injury that ultimately keeps you from maintaining your ability to live a normal, everyday life.

Defense

So to stretch the football analogy, basic home-safety adjustments are much like focusing first on a strong defense. Making simple modifications and minor investments to your home environment can prevent injury. Many such accommodations are simple:

• Eliminate fall hazards including loose cords, hallway or stairway obstructions like piles of old magazines, throw rugs or bathroom mats that don’t have slip-resistant rubber on their bottoms.

• Improve night lighting in bedrooms and halls, and remove obstructions between the bed and bathroom for nighttime visits to the restroom.

• Replace old house slippers with ones that provide better support and traction.

• Manage medications more closely to prevent improper dosages that can contribute to symptoms like grogginess or low blood pressure, which could cause fainting.

Offense

After shoring up defensive measures for safety, turn your attention to a more aggressive offensive strategy to make your overall home more accessible. This will help maintain not just safety, but also your quality of life by enabling you to continue to perform your daily activities independently.

Home accessibility upgrades range from moderate to more expensive in cost and can be scaled to your specific desires. A few affordable home modifications include:

• Place furniture risers under chairs, couches and beds to make standing or sitting easier and safer.

• Install proper handrails or a small ramp for steps and stairs that allow access for all areas of the house, the garage and outside areas.

• Replace existing toilet with an elevated Americans with Disabilities Act-height toilet.

• Add a handheld wand to a bathtub or shower as well as a proper shower chair for safe bathing.

• Replace existing knob-style door handles with lever-style handles.

Bigger-ticket upgrades

Because many Los Altos houses were built more than 50 years ago, you may need to invest more to reach modern accessibility standards.

The most common, more significant investment in home modification usually comes in the bathroom through:

• Widening the entrance and using pocket doors for wheelchair access.

• Remodeling the floor plan for transfer access between sink, toilet, bathtub and shower.

• Replacing a bathtub or shower that can facilitate a variety of disabilities, including full wheelchair walk-in access.

Like all good investments, such renovations cost a bit more up front but could pay dividends in the form of quality of life for years to come as you age at home.

For more information and a checklist of ideas for home safety and accessibility, visit www.homecare-california.com/homesafety.

 

Greg Hartwell is managing director and CEO of Homecare California, a Los Altos-based in-home caregiving agency. He is a frequent guest speaker on elder-care issues. For more information, call 324-2600, email greg@homecarecal.com. 

San Mateo Daily Post Op-Ed: Local season activities for seniors.

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Geriatric Care Management: Autumn Transitions Takes an “Aerial” View in San Jose Area

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

As the owner of San Jose geriatric care management company Autumn Transitions since 2007, Randee Smith works to support seniors as they deal with the myriad medical, legal, financial, and social issues related to aging.  In a recent conversation, we learned several facts that demonstrate why she is such an effective geriatric care manager.

Asked to describe herself, Smith says she is “proactive producer.”  That phrase encompasses a lifetime of widely diverse activities, all linked by a common thread.  Early on, she learned how to look at an entire situation – to take the “aerial view” – and anticipate the gaps that may come about from lack of organization or poor planning.  Then she put the needed safeguards into place.

The joy Randee Smith brings to her work, as well as her commitment to her clients, is clearly evident, but her path to this vocation was circuitous.  Her long career includes activities ranging from beauty pageant production to managing a talent agency.  Work environments have included corporate high-tech industries, cable television studios, and marketing offices. She even worked in the New York and Hollywood film production industry for over twelve years, and was once employed as a member of the Executive Staff of famed director John Landis.  He claimed he hired her because she made him feel “safe,” as he operated at the top of the dizzying, aggressive, and unforgiving world of the movie industry.

It seems a long way from this high-octane resume to her current role as a geriatric care manager for seniors struggling with their health and independence, but Smith says that the principles are very similar.  It’s all about assessing the needs, identifying the gaps and filling them in, and taking a potentially stressful situation and turning it into a memorable transition.

At Autumn Transitions, Smith works with both family members and older adults themselves, but she makes certain that everyone understands that she is an advocate for the senior client.  “For these individuals,” Smith explains, “What matters most to them is how they feel when I am there.  For the families, what matters most is that they can sleep better at night if they know I’m there.”  Her initial assessment evaluates such potential issues as safety, mobility, nutrition, medication, transportation, executive functioning, and whether legal and financial paperwork are in order.  Smith also strives to determine their interests and spiritual beliefs – “what brings them joy.”

One of the most critical issues she notes is the degree of isolation an older adult may face.  This factor, along with health issues, will most determine an individual’s preferred living environment.  While most individuals desire to remain in the natural home, Smith points out that problems with isolation, for example, can sometimes make a shared living setting a better choice.  Decisions about living arrangements as well as daily activities, medical care, and other concerns are addressed in what Smith prefers to call an action plan.  A thorough evaluation and resulting action plan get the client, family, and other providers moving in the same direction, as they start to address some of the gaps that need filling.

Autumn Transitions utilizes a unique document, called “A Day in the Life,” that provides all caregivers with detailed knowledge of a particular client, including  background information– a key to personalized care.  The better educated each caregiver can be about the unique needs of a client, the stronger the care team will be. Autumn Transitions works closely with caregivers throughout the area, including those provided by Homecare California, in natural and assisted living settings. 

Smith emphasizes that care management is more than care planning.  She continues to work directly with the client and the entire care team as long as needed, and is available 24/7 to handle any crisis which may arise.  After all, there’s always another gap that needs filling, and another transition to plan.  For Randee Smith, it’s her true life’s work.

Randee Smith is a Certified Senior Advisor and a member of the National Association of Geriatric Care Managers.  Autumn Transitions serves families throughout the Bay area, including the Santa Clara and San Mateo County areas served by Homecare California.  For further information about the services provided at Autumn Transitions, visit their website today.

Little-Known Programs Offer Assistance with In-Home Care for Los Altos’ Senior Veterans

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

The following article appeared in the November 9, 2011 edition of the Los Altos Town Crier.     Friday is Veterans Day, a day mixed with nostalgia and pride for 94-year-old Los Altos resident and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ezra Williams.  Williams served the country for more than 22 years, beginning during his college days at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where he enrolled in the ROTC program. After graduation, the government helped pay for Williams’ pursuit of a master’s degree in meteorology from UCLA, which enabled him to become an expert on guided missiles. During his two decades of service, Williams earned a Bronze Star. After his final tour of duty in Korea ended, he continued to work in the engineering field, specializing in guided missiles and rockets. “All veterans in this country deserve special recognition for what they have done and all the sacrifices they’ve made,” he said. “They are the ones who keep this country safe.” Williams is one of approximately 2,800 U.S. military veterans living in Los Altos. And like most veterans of his generation, he prefers to live at home as he progresses in years. For Williams and millions of other vets, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) lends a helping hand to those who choose to live independently at home. The program, the Homemaker/Home Health Aide Program (H/HHA), is available locally through the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. The Los Altos-based Home-care California agency works with the VA Palo Alto to deliver assistance at home for veterans. Three times per week for three hours per visit, Lester Martin, a former U.S. Air Force medic, veteran and Homecare California caregiver, provides in-home care visits to Williams to assist with personal care and household chores. For Williams’ daughter Bonnie, the H/HHA program is crucial in defraying her father’s total cost of care, which she and other family members supplement to provide consistent coverage. In addition to the H/HHA program, the VA offers other benefits to enable senior veterans to remain at home, such as the Veteran’s Aid and Attendance (A&A) Pension for veterans and surviving spouses who require the regular attendance of another person to assist with eating, bathing, dressing and personal care. The A&A Pension can provide up to $1,632 per month to a veteran, $1,055 per month to a surviving spouse or $1,949 per month to a couple. The A&A benefit is not limited to care at home and is also available for assistance in a nursing home or assisted-living facility. There are specific qualification criteria that should be explored. Homecare California works with a free resource provider that can help veterans determine eligibility at no cost. For more information, visit http://www.homecare-california.com/veteransbenefits For more information on the H/HHA program, visit www.paloalto.va.gov/hhhafaq.asp, call 493-5000, ext. 6-HOM, and select option 3, or email hhapaloalto@va.gov. For more information on the A&A Pension, visit www.veteransaid.org. Greg Hartwell, managing director and CEO of Homecare California, is a frequent guest speaker on eldercare issues. For more information, call 324-2600, email greg@homecarecal.com, or visit http://homecarecal.com.

Aging in Place: Assessing Individual Support Needs

Friday, November 4th, 2011

This article is the second in a series provided as a service to family caregivers by Homecare California.  In this series, we will explore how family members and other caregivers can assist older adults in being able to remain successfully in their homes.  Homecare California provides in-home services to individuals in the greater Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties area.  However, most of the information provided is applicable to any families facing the challenges of aging, regardless of location.

In order to age in place successfully, assistance is often needed – in the form of environmental modifications, assistive devices, professional help, or other resources.  If a loved one has difficulty with daily independent functioning, it’s important to assess his or her unique needs.    Independent living can be affected by both a person’s functional and medical condition and the home environment itself.

Functional Assessment

Start by taking a look at the functional areas in which your family member seems to have the most difficulty.  Common problem areas include:

– Mobility and transportation – problems navigating around the house or getting to appointments

– Security and safety – risk of falling, frequent needs for emergency assistance

– Health care – ongoing medical problems needing treatment, monitoring and/or rehabilitation

– Activities of daily living (ADLs) – problems performing household tasks or caring for personal needs

– Recreation and companionship – problems with isolation or withdrawal

Environmental Assessment

Often, an older individual’s independence is challenged because of problems in the home environment than can be remedied.  Before you can make environmental adaptations, it’s important to identify potential problems.

To identify the challenges which exist in the home environment, complete a full environmental scan.  An environmental scan consists of identifying the potential weaknesses and challenges in a home, business, or organization, as well as its strengths. Walk through the house and see your family member’s home through the eyes of someone with his or her impairments.  Could you get through hallways easily in a wheelchair?  If your hands were arthritic, could you turn on the stove?  Determine environmental issues that relate to safety and mobility, as well as environmental impediments to managing specific household tasks or daily living activities.

Resources

Particularly if you are in the pre-planning stage, you can do much of the assessment and information gathering yourself.  But if time is of the essence, we suggest you contact a professional care manager who specializes in the needs of seniors.  They can conduct detailed assessments and both identify and link you with needed resources.  Elder care managers can often be located through your local hospital or home health organization. The Santa Clara and San Mateo Council on Aging offices provide information on area resources as well.  And if you contact our office, we may be able to help you identify local resources.  You can also find helpful resources online, including checklists to help you assess your loved one’s ability to perform activities of daily living, or lists of common household barriers and challenges for older homeowners.

 

In our next article in the series, we’ll describe the process of setting up an aging-in-place action plan and a support network.

Aging in Place: An Overview

Monday, October 17th, 2011

This article is the first in a series provided as a service to family caregivers by Homecare California.  In this series, we will explore how family members and other caregivers can assist older adults in being able to remain successfully in their homes.  Homecare California provides in-home services to individuals in the greater Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties area.  However, most of the information provided is applicable to any families facing the challenges of aging, regardless of location.

 

 

Introduction

An unexpected fall, a sudden hospitalization – and a loved one’s world is changed forever.  Like millions of families, your own family may be affected by a common dilemma.  How can you help an older loved one remain comfortably at home, even though illness or disability has reduced his or her ability to function independently?

Most of us dream of living in our own homes up until the day we die.  While we understand that we may need to make adjustments to our environment or slow down our schedules over time, we cherish the belief that we can live independently and in familiar surroundings.  Social researchers have coined a term to describe this phenomenon:  aging in place.

Our loved ones have the same dream we do.  Unfortunately, life– as they say– happens. Time and events conspire to jeopardize those dreams of independence at home, leaving the entire family unprepared for the consequences.  When change is sudden—a bone-shattering accident, an acute illness — there is little time for well thought-out planning.  When change is gradual—increased forgetfulness, worsening arthritic joints — it may be so imperceptible that we fail to spot the warning signs until the situation is in crisis.  Having worked in the senior care field with hundreds of families facing this same challenge, we at Homecare California have become strong advocates for pre-planning.

Your family may be one of the few that has already anticipated the changes in independence that can come with aging.  If so, congratulations on your foresight!  Chances are, however, that you’re reading this because you are beginning to become aware of a future need, or you are currently facing challenges with a loved one.  This series is designed to help you begin the planning process.

 Aging in Place:  The Reality

Aging in place has become something of a catch phrase over the last few years, but what does the term really mean?  Simply put, aging in place refers to the ability to remain at home for as long as is possible, comfortably and confidently.  Livability is an important part of this concept, as remaining at home but unable to enjoy life misses the point.  Your loved one must be able to feel secure and safe at home, and confident in his or her ability to function as independently as possible. 

Aging in place is not an option for everyone, unfortunately.  For an individual who needs 24/7 intensive care or rehabilitation due to a severe disability or critical health concern, practical or financial constraints may make home-based care unmanageable. However, our experience has been that the great majority of older adults can life at home safely, if reasonable precautions are taken and adequate supports are in place.

Helping your loved one age in place is not just about honoring a dream.  Research has demonstrated that living at home promotes an older adult’s physical and emotional health.  For example, the risk of infection is reduced when a frail elderly individual lives at home rather than in a congregate setting such as a nursing home.  And emotional benefits can’t be minimized, particularly since depression is a frequent problem with the elderly.  A home represents both pride of ownership and a measure of independence for the older individual.  So for most seniors, remaining at home actually can extend life expectancy while offering an often less expensive and certainly less disruptive option to out-of-home placement.

In this series, we’ll provide information that will assist you in the following areas:

– Assessing functional needs and environmental barriers

– Communicating with your loved one and others about the need for supports

– Developing an aging-in-place action plan

– Identifying available and appropriate resources and strategies, from environmental modifications and adaptive devices to professional caregivers.

With sufficient information and planning, you may be able to turn the dream of aging in place back into a reality.

In our next article in the series, we’ll discuss the process of identifying your loved one’s unique support needs through completing functional and environmental assessments.

For Residents with Dementia, Menlo Park Volunteer Group Offers Social Outlet — and a Cup of Coffee

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

One of the common by-products of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is the profound isolation experienced by individuals and their caregivers.  In Menlo Park, a novel approach to easing this isolation is found at the new Alzheimer’s Café.  While the name may sound odd at first, it aptly summarizes both its target patrons and its social philosophy.  Only the third such program in California and one of a handful in the country, the Alzheimer’s Café creates a casual social atmosphere in which people living with dementia, as well as their loved ones, can mingle.  No one worries about saying the wrong thing or feeling self-conscious.  They are among friends.

Peninsula Volunteers, Inc., a South Mateo County senior services organization, hosts the Menlo Park café on a monthly basis.  The PVI program is based on a model of care begun in the Netherlands almost 15 years ago.  Pioneered by Dutch psychologists, the café model begins with the simple premise that people with dementia enjoy social outlets, too, particularly if they are provided in a non-threatening, relaxing atmosphere.

If you’re expecting formal workshops, support groups, or therapeutic structured activities, you’ll be disappointed.  What you will find is plenty of hot coffee and desserts, along with an array of playing cards, music, and art supplies.  Conversations may flow, or groups may sit in companionable silence.  Either way, there’s a sense of belonging, and an opportunity for older adults with dementia to publicly socialize with their loved ones.

According to news reports, the café’s first efforts this summer were successful, and they are extending the schedule into the fall and winter months.  Those of us who work in home-based senior care and dementia programs  know that families struggle with ways to create social outlets in which they can participate with their loved ones.  The Alzheimer’s Café promises to be one way to have a pleasant afternoon out – without the awkwardness or discomfort that often occur in most public outings.

The next Alzheimer’s Café is scheduled for October 18, so if you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s or dementia living in the Menlo Park area, you may want to circle the date. 

Here are the quick facts:

Location:                     Peninsula Volunteers Little House, the Rosalyn G. Morris Activity Center

Address:                     800 Middle Ave., Menlo Park, CA   94025

Dates & Times:         3^rd Tuesday of each month, from 2 – 4 p.m. 

Cost:                           Free, but donations accepted

Contact Info:              For additional information, call Julie Scales at (650) 326-2025, ext. 229.