What to Expect

By utilizing, the services of Total Care, all clients and partners can be certain that our care covers the full care cycle and is tightly coordinated ensuring that client information is “extensively and seamlessly shared”.

We help families and individuals who are:

New to senior care or uncomfortable with senior care decision-making

Having difficulty with any aspect of senior and or elder care

Faced with a sudden decision or major change, such as a health crisis or a change of residence

Dealing with a complex situation such as a psychiatric, cognitive, health, legal, or social issues

Because many of our clients are new to in home care, we've included a brief overview of what you can expect from our services below.

Step 1: Conduct an In-Person Assessment

Interview questions cover a range of issues relevant to the individual’s health and living situation, including everyday activities, nutritional status, safety, memory, depression, finances, family and friend dynamics, insurance, expectations and more.

Step 2: Make a Comprehensive Care Plan

Using a strength-based model, a Total Care Plan includes the results of the assessment, recommendations, and referrals for local care options. A Total Care Manager will provide an in depth explanation of the entire plan, what led to the recommendations, what is expected, and prioritizing the needs list.

Additionally, the plan will clearly identify any situations that are in crisis, needing immediate and mandatory attention like; monitoring medications that are not being taken properly and those issues, while not an emergency that may also need to be closely monitored; like personal hygiene issues, diet and activities which are important to the client’s health and well-being.

Total Care clients and chosen family members will receive regular reassessments. Capabilities and functions will be monitored as time goes on with adjustments made for changes. A perfect example is memory. A senior may have some moderate memory loss now but nothing that is potentially threatening. Six months later those memory issues may have worsened or be good one day and not the next. We will provide regular, periodic assessments on what we observe so that situations, when they arise, can be addressed and changes, if needed, made.

Step 3: Arrange services

Total Care Managers are in many ways, like a general contractor, eliminating the need for the caregiver to organize the necessary services. We coordinate between service providers taking the burden of organization off the caregiver’s shoulders. Service personnel and companies are instructed to communicate to Total Care rather than the caregiver, thereby relieving the caregiver of having to contact and respond to multiple providers.

In many cases, service providers are even more responsive and forthcoming with the Total Care Manager than they would be with the client or customer. Our Care Managers are knowledgeable about what needs to be done, facilitate communication between service providers and individuals, and often catch issues before they become problems. In order to obtain optimum value for our clients and reimbursement sources, our Care Managers identify appropriate providers and facilities across the continuum of health care and human services while insuring that available resources are timely, cost-effective, and efficient.

When family members and caregivers are remote from their loved one, they rely even more so on us for getting in touch with local service companies and monitoring them to ensure the optimum quality of services. The Total Care Manager becomes the channel for establishing and monitoring services and needs.

Step 4: Monitor needs

• The first meeting with a client establishes a baseline of the care plan strategy.

• Follow up assessments will be compared to that initial assessment to determine what, if anything needs to change.

• Total Care Managers will make in home visits on either a monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or daily basis depending upon the severity of circumstances. These visits will determine if the current care plan is working and will also serve to spot issues before they become problems and get them resolved.

• Identify changes in the client's condition and determines if and when other team members should be involved with the case.

Other Services:

Personal Assistants also know as Personal Aides
PRI and Screens
Guardianships

Families also hire Total Care for help in filling out Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care, or other insurance forms. They also seek Care Managers for a comprehensive assessment or help in deciding what the best and most appropriate care for an older family member would be. An objective third-party opinion or an accurate presentation of the possible options with their associated costs is often all that a family needs to make a decision regarding care.