Who Pays for Long Term Care? Remedy for Austin Caregiver Burnout and Texas Financial Help with Elder Care

Introducing Patti Wilikins with Genworth Financial at (512) 970-3428. She can help with Long Term Care Insurance and answer concerns on caring for yourself when getting older.

Who Pays for Long Term Care? In the past 12 months, how many conversations have you had about LTC?

Caring for aging relatives can quickly climb the ladder of stress, depression, and isolation. Family caregivers find themselves consumed with the elder's life! I've watched my own siblings shred apart when worrying about our dad. A hard topic to bring to family meetings is; "When does dad go to the nursing home?" We struggled with that question for a year.

I watched my two older sisters labor with that senior event - well, actually, they battled more with guilt the whole time dad went downhill and finally made the grueling decision to move him to the nursing home. I hated it. I hated the fact we could no longer care for him, we were thankless adult children and could not continue to do for him what he did for us. We then had the horrifying experience watching him resist moving to the "old folks" home.

Although dad passed eight months ago, guilt is still alive in my heart, mind, and soul. How can I come to terms with it? I don't know.

There is a better choice for you though. And there are many options for happier aging relatives. Yes, living out their lives living with you is not one that I'm referring to. Thank goodness. That can be a tough one especially if you work full-time and care for children of your own. Although, it can be a good, temporary option in the meantime.

I remember my dad, while discussing his move to the nursing home, he cried and said to us, "I wish I had done this differently." Yes, me too.

How could he/we have done it differently? Years before a Long Term Care Insurance Representative visited my parents and presented a long term care plan with LTC insurance. I was there. I sat on the living room floor and listened. After his presentation, I begged my parents to PLEASE think seriously about this option. My mom simply replied, "No, I'm going to the nursing home when I can no longer care for myself." Guess what??!! That never happened to her. But it did to my dad. Looking back he GREATLY anguished over losing the option of living his life out at home.

What I profess to seniors and family caregivers is consider your options. Look at all your choices. You may not have to choose just one but know you have options! So, how do you know "what" to do for yourself or your aging relatives? First, plan ahead. Think about how you want to live out your life... and start planning.

Long Term Care Insurance? What's that? If you parent's are like mine, they are unclear what it is, what it does, and how it can be a life saver for them and you, the caregiver.

Patti Wilkins, a career representative for Genworth Financial, speaks about the misconceptions of Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, and all the topics that get us confused about who's going to take care of me when I get old?

Click here to download…

Yes, there are misconceptions on what it can and will do for the senior and family. It can be confusing and LTC Insurance has changed since there are so many of us living longer. It works well for a lot of seniors. When doing your homework consider the facts; what LTC does and does not do for you.

Call Patti Wilikins today at (512) 970-3428. Ask her to help you understand all your long term care options. She's patient and thorough when helping put forth a plan for the future. Long Term Care Insurance can take the stress out of caregiving and tears out of aging.

Call now! You do have options but only if you plan ahead.

Thank you for visiting. Carol @ WorkingCaregiver.com

Caregiver Stress Options

Reading information on "taking time out for yourself" can help with imbalances. Work/life responsibilities is one of the biggest imbalances we seek to mellow out. And yoga can help with us with that.

According to Timothy Burgin of YogaBasics.com says the key to weight management is to take time out of your busy schedule to create the right conditions to heal imbalances in your body, mind, or emotions that may be contributing to a weight problem and even stress. So to gain balance; keep your stress levels manageable, and creating mind-body harmony.

By completing the routines and practicing the breathing and visualization techniques on YogaBasics, you are well on your way to creating the right conditions. You now have a wealth of information and new stress-management skills at your fingertips. You can use these skills simply to lose weight, or to go beyond the immediate benefits of your weight loss. You can take these new skills into other areas of your life. More changes you might notice according to Mr. Burgin of Yoga Basics are:

• Improved self-esteem as a result of changing unhealthy behaviors to healthy ones.


• More self-discipline and willpower to help you maintain these changes in your long-term behavior.


• The ability to de-stress your body, mind, and emotions by sequential stretching and rhythmic breathing.


• The ability to think and act with calm self-assurance and ease.

Visit YogaBasics.com - it's worth your time to balance and chill.

Thank you, Carol

Working Caregivers, the Silent Population

When reading articles about working family caregivers, we are often times called The Silent Population. Makes me think why are we silent? You'd think with juggling all that we do, we'd be screaming for help! But we don't. So then that makes me wonder if that's why there such a thing as Caregiver Stress? Or how about Caregiver Burnout?

It reminds me of a woman (I'll call her Jane to keep this blog easy to follow) in my office who's in the Sandwich Generation - not only does Jane belong to the Silent Generation but she's labeled Sandwich too! Anyway, Jane has children who are ages 10 and 14, very active in school and sport activities. She also has a mom living with her who's had several strokes and is confined to a wheel chair. Jane supposedly works full-time but is rarely on the job "full-time." Now, I'm not telling you this to be critical but instead to talk about the truth and what really happens in the work place.

Jane, along with several others, arrive late and leave early. Not because they're goofing off... instead they're running errands, shuffling kids to activities, taking mom to the doctor, checking on mom, etc. You understand if you fall in the sandwich generation. All of this makes you wonder how much productivity gets done on the job?

This is a growing issues now that boomers are aging... what are some doable options for us? There are some good companies that are looking at ways to help increase our time on the job.. but there are many who ignore this hard and fast-growing dilemma.

My next topic will address what the employee or working family caregivers can do to be more productive at work. Please visit our website http://www.workiingcaregiver.com and sign up for our free CareBuzz Newsletter - loaded with good tips and solutions.

The Buzz on Caregiving Burnout

Most family caregivers are thrown into the endeavor of helping their aging mom, dad, grandparent or relative soon after a senior event. That's what happened to me and my siblings. That's probably, as those of you who have experienced, is the worst time to start searching for elder care issues and solutions. Think about it, if you wait till after a senior event to do your research, aren't your elder care decisions based on emotion rather than a prudent, well thought out plan for the ones you love?

Many of us ignore that ever looming endeavor - caring for an aging relative as long as possible. Why? Because who wants to admit to aging and getting old? Not me! I hate the fact that I'm over 50! There's so much stigma in our society on growing old. Isn't that why we're so interested in topics on ageless and the fountain of youth? I had a friend tell me the other day, she plans to live to 120! I don't know about you but that's a ghastly image!

Well, for me as a family caregiver while working full-time and living at a distance wanted to avoid aging as much as possible. But because I avoided it and did not prepare myself or my family for it, created a huge mess of challenges, stress, and confusion. And not to mention the emotion that shades any good decision.

First, let me say aging and caring for an elder is inevitable and it is in your future. So, accept it. Once that's accomplished, you are half way there to making your caregiving days less stressful and eventally will not experience caregiver burnout easily. This is step one of getting prepared.

There are many valuable resources available to us and that will make your life as a working family caregiver easier. Our website delivers a weekly newsletter called CareBuZZ that's delivered for free to your email inbox on a weekly basis. It's loaded with targeted solutions for elder care. Save it for later or use those tips now. It's yours for free simply sign up at our website Workingcaregiver.com.

And visit here often. More tips on easing the caregiving road ahead. I hope you learn from some of my mistakes and you live stress-less, healther, wiser, and playful. There can't be a better thank you to your aging relative than to see you happier.

Relieving stress in caring,

Carol Marak

Founder, http://www.workingcaregiver.com

Sign up for our CareBuZZ - FREE Newsletter - loaded with tips on living a stress-less, healthier, wiser and playful life as a Caregiver. It's fun and gives you valuable how to's and tips. JUST DO IT.

Caregiving and Anger - A Paradox?

As a caregiver, no doubt you know you are doing a wonderful, loving thing in caring for your elder...and....do you ever feel anger? Are you ashamed of it? Do You feel resentful sometimes that you arrive to work late and must leave early to take care of it all? Is your relationship with your partner and/or children suffering?

Are there times you want to scream when thinking about the next errand you must run or the calls that need to get done on their behalf? Anger will be addressed here..we know that anger often goes with caregiving; but, rarely do we talk about it.

Guilt is a complex emotion that is often misattributed and more time than a few anger can be the driving force of guilt. The feeling, guilt, should stem from a wrongdoing, but all too often it grows from our desire to strive for a better quality of life when others around us are in great need. Even the delegation of tasks evokes guilt, as we come to believe no one can do the job as well as we can. Never forget what family caregiving is at its core, however: a combination of individual tasks. Getting your car inspected before the end of the month is not nearly as important as the pre-surgery consultation with the specialist. It is not wrong to delegate.

Let’s understand guilt. It’s the biggest emotional challenge you’ll face as a family caregiver. Guilt will rip away at the relationship ties you’ve built with the aging loved one and yourself. It’s painful and can certainly threaten your coping.

What is guilt? The dictionary defines the word "guilt" as a "feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined." Guilt is that part of the human conscience that brings us up short and convicts us for actions and thoughts.

Guilt is an inherent human trait that should be seen as a gift, however, most of us do not see it as such and rather than deal with guilt, we naturally attempt to squelch it. However, guilt is that nagging voice with in us all that is like water upon a stone and is meant to bring us to a realization that there is a standard and we have fallen short, but whose standard is it?

Let’s talk about anger! And even more important, let’s take positive steps to effectively address anger before we’re raked into the mad cycle of anger, guilt, anger, guilt, etc. This damages our health, peace of mind, and the joy we deserve to have in our lives.

Workingcaregiver.com invites you to our Caregiving and Anger TeleSeminar on June 5th:

In this one hour live teleseminar we'll discuss:

1. Trusting our own perceptions.
2. Accepting our anger.
3. Setting definite limits on what we will do.
4. Recognizing how both our strengths and limitations serve us.
5. Allowing our loved ones to do as much for themselves as they can.
6. Asking for help….the road is very tough to travel alone.
7. Taking time for respite. Rest and recovery is vital.
8. Making choices in our own best interest--it will benefit the entire family

Sign up at register@workingcaregiver.com

Hope you can join us! For more information go to: http://www.workingcaregiver.com/Teleseminar

Carol Marak, Founder, http://www.workingcaregiver.com