One of the things I enjoy most about preparing these “know your neighborhood business” emails each week is gathering and then sharing the wealth of knowledge that each of our Roost business sponsors has gained over the years that can benefit us all.
Administrator Don Snow and owner Chuck Lawrence of Lawrence Convalescent Center at 48th and Belmont have a great deal to share with us that can make a big difference in the quality of life for our families. Since most of us will be involved in just a handful of end of life care decisions for our parents, our partner’s parents and at some point our own care as well, it’s comforting to lean on the wisdom of two men who have dedicated a big part of their adult lives to helping families juggle the financial, physical and emotional challenges that aging brings.
A lot has changed over the years in end-of-life care. Hospice care is a relatively new concept and the more general nursing homes or rest homes that we may have visited to sing songs or deliver Valentines in our youth have been divided up in to more specific categories – skilled care, intermediate care, assisted living, residential care and adult foster care homes – each with their own types of care and associated costs. With all the options and some associated restrictions on what insurance policies and the state will and won’t cover, we aren’t just making one care placement decision but a whole series of them as strokes, dementia and other factors affect our parents.
Full convalescent care carries around a $70,000 a year price tag that drains family finances very quickly as Don well knows since Lawrence Convalescent Center accepts both private pay and Medicaid for residents. His biggest piece of advice financially to all of us is this: Don’t wait until a loved one is already in need of care to attempt to move assets between family members in preparation for applying for Medicaid. The state works very hard to find all available assets and will scrutinize finances in the years and months right before benefit applications very carefully.
As much as we’d all rather talk about the weather or our kids or anything else but delicate financial matters around the holiday table, I know I’ll be asking a for a few more details when I visit my parents in San Diego this Christmas and feel a lot better for it.
As some of us already know, there is big role reversal that happens in the parent child relationship in the later years. Suddenly the woman who used to ride you to eat your vegetables needs gentle and not so gentle prodding to eat well and keep on top of medications. You can find yourself very quickly in the position of trying to help figure what’s best, what’s needed and what’s missing in your parents lives and being a part of orchestrating their living situation in ways you never imagined.
Lawrence Convalescent Center is a small, family run intermediate care facility with 41 beds, locally owned, not part of a big corporation. Don, in his 15 years working in assisted care, 10 as an administrator, has worked both in places that are quite large and bustling with activity and places like Lawrence Convalescent Center that are small, quiet and serene.
While the average stay in a care facility is in the 2-3 year range, Chuck, Don and his staff can talk fondly about residents that lived in one care facility for 5,10, 15 and even 20 years. Don told me some really great, inspiring and sometimes surprising stories about what makes a great placement for adults in their later years.
One woman was quite upset when, at almost 105 and ten years into assisted care, her private pay funds were exhausted and she had had to move into a larger place that would take Medicaid. It didn’t take long for her and her family to discover that she had been a bit lonely at her quiet little private pay center. She found herself quite enlivened and invigorated by all activity at her new space.
Some of the larger, newer care facilities in our own neighborhood are more attractive to families initially as they look for the very best place for grandma or grandpa to be. Lawrence Convalescent Center, built in 1970 can, at first glance, seem by some to be too small and simple. Don knows that families that take the time to come in and speak with the staff often really like what they find. While large and busy is great for some residents, especially for dementia residents, small and quiet is exactly what’s needed. Don is glad that, as an administrator, he doesn’t have to push staff to stick to business only so they can get through every patient on a busy floor. Taking the time to talk with residents and listening to their stories in a small facility is often, for the staff, the very best part of the job.
They kept it simple but certainly not small as they served Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday afternoon to their residents and a large, joyful gathering of extended family members who live nearby and have been grateful to have the expertise of Lawrence Convalescent Center to lean on in the passing years.
Not just as a Roost business sponsor, but in many other ways as well, Chuck Lawrence is the antithesis of the corporate executive just looking at the bottom line. He’s a regular participant in the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association leading the crime prevention meetings and he has dedicated two Saturdays a month for years to graffiti removal in the neighborhood.
It only takes a minute to stop by the convalescent center for a visit. Gardening volunteers and people who want to volunteer with residents are always welcomed. While you are there, Chuck and his daughter Lisa, Don and his staff can give you great advice on services and resources that make some of the most challenging care decisions a lot more bearable.
Much thanks to you, Chuck and Don, for supporting The Roost for our neighborhood youth and for everything else you do to support community. Who knows, by putting a little money into The Roost, Chuck may very well be saving himself some money and time on his graffiti rounds as well. Time will tell.
