Friday, May 2, 2008

The Siblings: A family meeting

My mother essentially called a family meeting to discuss the Grandma situation. They are on the fence about assisted living versus independent living. My aunt -- Mom's sister -- came in from overseas and my two uncles planned trips here at the same time. They are all visiting Grandma today and they are going to try to reach a consensus as to where she should live.

The situation is that Grandma is high functioning for an assisted living place and maybe a little low functioning for an independent living setup. Assisted living is considerably more expensive and on good days she would be fine in an independent living situation. The main independent living facility that is under consideration provides three meals a day and weekly housekeeping.

If Grandma lived in an independent living facility and her health deteriorated even slightly, she would have to be put on a waiting list for an assisted living place and the she would have to move again. There are no good options in the area that allow people to transition from independent living to assisted living to a nursing home while remaining in the same community or complex. Since these moves are can be it traumatic -- especially for elderly people -- no one wants to make the mistake of placing Grandma where she will have to be moved within a few months.

Then there is the money side of things. At some point in the next few years Grandma will run out of money and The Siblings are discussing that as well.

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