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For elderly pet owners, who often live alone or in group facilities, pets can help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, increase social interaction and physical activity and help them learn. “A new pet can stimulate someone to read up on an animal or breed, which can be very mentally stimulating and important at that age,” says Dr. Katharine Hillestad, a veterinarian with the office of Doctors Foster and Smith in Rhinelander, Wis., which provides online advice and retails pet

Caution to elders and family members of elders. This happens too often: Via The New York Times 11/27/15 Elizabeth Olson It was only after Mariana Cooper, a widow in Seattle, found herself with strained finances that she confessed to her granddaughter that she was afraid she had been bilked out of much of her savings. Over three years, Ms. Cooper, 86, had written at least a dozen checks totaling more than $217,000 to someone she considered a friend and confidante. But the mone

NEW YORK: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds that a Medicaid recipient who is under guardianship cannot bring a § 1983 claim to require the state to deduct guardianship fees from her available income. Backer v. Shah (U.S. Ct. App., 2nd Cir., No. 14-1367-cv, June 3, 2015). Ms. Backer sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the state violated 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(19), which requires the state to ensure eligibility is determined in the best interest of the

Article by Brian A. Raphan. Published 3/17/15 in ‘THE DOCTOR WEIGHS IN’ When a patient develops pressure ulcers, it is often a sign of neglect and can even be the result of hospital malpractice, nurse malpractice or nursing home negligence. Any time a patient is confined to a bed or chair for a period of time and not provided proper and adequate care, the risk of pressure ulcers increases. The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) defines a pressure ulcer as a “local

The need to protect your assets is always at hand. Planning for long-term care with an elder law attorney can help protect your assets for the in home spouse and heirs. Medicaid Planning or Life Care Planning helps to ensure that you or your loved one get the best possible long-term care and the highest possible quality of life, whether at home, in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home. The following article brings this issue to light. Article via The New York Tim

When one spouse is in a nursing home and applying for Medicaid, planning has to take into account the possibility that the spouse who is not in the nursing home (called the “community spouse”) may pass away first. This is because the community spouse’s death may make the spouse in the nursing home ineligible for Medicaid. In order to qualify for Medicaid, a nursing home resident can have only a limited number of assets. Careful planning can allow the resident’s spouse to main

By Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News When Paul Ormond signed John Mitchell into a nursing home in Dennis, Mass., in June, he was handed a few dozen pages of admission papers. Ormond, Mitchell’s legal guardian and an old friend, signed wherever the director of admissions told him to. He didn’t realize that one of those documents was an agreement that required Mitchell and his family to take disputes to a professional arbitrator rather than to court. Mitchell had been instit

Why do we hear so much about geriatric care management these days? It’s because there are so many benefits they can provide to seniors and care givers. Let’s first clarify the term: A professional Geriatric Care Manager (GCM) is a health and human services specialist who helps families who are caring for older relatives. The GCM is trained and experienced in any of several fields related to care management, including nursing, gerontology, social work, psychology, and logistic

Many people, especially seniors, see joint ownership of investment and bank accounts as a cheap and easy way to avoid probate since joint property passes automatically to the joint owner at death. Joint ownership can also be an easy way to plan for incapacity since the joint owner of accounts can pay bills and manage investments if the primary owner falls ill or suffers from dementia. These are all true benefits of joint ownership, but three potential drawbacks exist as well:

“Read the agreement carefully before signing. Nursing Home Agreements can be complicated and confusing” Admitting a loved one to a nursing home can be very stressful. In addition to dealing with a sick family member and managing all the details involved with the move, you must decide whether to sign all the papers the nursing home is giving you. Nursing home admission agreements can be complicated and confusing, so what do you do? It is important not to rush, but rather to re