Your parent’s health has declined and they require frequent medical appointments in addition to daily home care. While many home care agencies can provide daily care they do not specialize in monitoring medical appointments and the resulting follow ups that also occur. It’s also sometimes uncomfortable to provide blanket permission for an individual to become involved in health care needs. This is when an advocate or care navigator is appropriate. This individual can accompany parents to medical appointments and ensure that suggested follow ups are completed. Additionally ongoing communication with family members out of town, especially the individual who holds the medical power of attorney can occur as frequently as needed. Often I find that out of town children will call their parents who advise that “everything is fine”, when one had an emergency that necessitated a hospital stay and another was sick for a few days. Parents simply either forget or do not want to burden out of town children with day to day issues. Want to know what’s really going on with your parents? Hire a care navigator
