Dennis M. Sandoval, A Professional Law Corporation Proudly Presents The Sixth Annual Inland Empire Caregiver Symposium on April 1 in Riverside, California

Dennis M. Sandoval, A Professional Law Corporation Proudly Presents The Sixth Annual Inland Empire Caregiver Symposium

Friday, April 1, 2011
Time: 8:00 am – 4:30 pm
Location:
California Baptist
University
8432 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504
Copenbarger Dining Room

8:00 Registration
8:30 Opening Remarks
8:45 Making Difficult Decisions for Persons Without Capacity – Speakers: Viki Kind, M.A. and Dennis Sandoval, J.D., CELA
9:45 Morning Break
10:00 Palliative Care – It’s Not What You Might Think – Speaker: Gina Mohr, M.D.
11:00 Improving Outcomes for Non-Compliant Patients – Speaker: Viki Kind, M.A.
Lunch Legacy Planning ? Leaving Behind What is Really Important
Speaker: Dennis Sandoval, J.D.
1:00 End of Life Decision Making – Speakers: Viki Kind, M.A. and Dennis Sandoval, J.D.
2:00 Dealing With Life Loss – Speaker: Victoria Stephan, M.A.
3:00 Afternoon Break
3:15 Helping Families with Care Transitions – Speaker: Paul Velen, M.S., MFT
4:15 Closing Remarks

Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys presents the ELDER CONCERT 2011 on Friday, March 25, 2011 – Ft. Lauderdale Marriott North Saturday and on March 26, 2011 – Crowne Plaza Tampa Westshore

Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys presents the ELDER CONCERT 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011 – Ft. Lauderdale Marriott North
Saturday, March 26, 2011 – Crowne Plaza Tampa Westshore

7:45 – 9:00am Registration
7:45 – 9:00am Continental Breakfast
(plenary session room)
10:15 – 10:45am Refreshment Break with exhibitors
10:45am – 12:00pm Session Two – Concurrent Workshops
A. Long Term Care Insurance and LTCI “Partnership” Plans: Info and Discussion on
relationship to Medicaid Planning, Financial Planning and Fiduciary Responsibility
B. “Upside Down” Real Estate Problems & Solutions (FT LAUD ONLY)
C. Elder Care Mediation: Learn and discuss this increasingly hot approach for Elder Law
Attorneys, Guardians, Fiduciaries, Health Care providers and Care Facilities to resolve
client problems.
D. Geriatric Care Assessment, Care Plan Development and how Elder Law Attorneys,
Estate Planners, Fiduciaries, Guardians and Care Managers can utilize these tools
E. Funerals, Pre-Paid Plans, Medicaid Planning and Guardianship Issues
12:00 – 1:15pm Luncheon
Speaker: Vicki Kind with Compassionate Care (Sponsored by The Guardian Pooled Trust)
1:30 – 2:45pm Session Three – Concurrent Workshops
A. Medicaid Diversion Waiver Update and Discussion
B. “Upside Down” Real Estate Problems & Solutions (TAMPA ONLY)
C. The New National Health Care Legislation: Update and Discussion
D. Elder Mediation: Learn and discuss this increasingly hot approach for Elder Law
Attorneys, Guardians, Fiduciaries, Health Care providers and Care Facilities to resolve
client problems (FT LAUD ONLY)
E. Types of Guardianship and Transition from Voluntary to Involuntary
F. Understanding Long Term Care Facilities: Gaining Admission, Financing the stay and
Maintaining quality care.
2:45 – 3:00pm Refreshment Break with exhibitors
3:00 – 4:15pm Session Four – Concurrent Workshops
A. The New National Health Care Legislation: Update & Discussion
B. Geriatric Care Assessment, Care Plan Development and how Elder Law Attorneys,
Estate Planners, Fiduciaries, Guardians and Care Managers utilize these tools.
C. Dealing with difficult Elder Law or Estate Planning Clients, Wards and Guardians
8:45 – 9:00am Opening Remarks
9:00 – 10:15am Session One – Plenary Session
A panel of leading experts facilitates a discussion on how to prevent, identify and redress elder
exploitation.
D. Medicaid Diversion Waiver Update and Discussion
E. Challenge of keeping documents up-to-date amongst all support professionals

Association for Gerontology in Higher Education’s Conference, taking place in Cincinnati, OH from March 17–20, 2011

Association for Gerontology in Higher Education’s 36th Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference, taking place in Cincinnati, OH from March 17–20, 2011. http://aghe.org/833179

Viki will be presenting Empowered Decision Making for Those Without Capacity on Friday, March 18 from 3-4:30.

The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (aka AGHE) is the international leader in advancing education on aging and is the only institutional membership organization devoted primarily to gerontology and geriatrics education since 1974. AGHE’s mission is two-fold: (1) To advance gerontology and geriatrics education in academic institutions; and (2) To provide leadership and support of gerontology and geriatrics education faculty and students at education institutions.

AGHE and its members are strongly committed to the well-being of older adults. Together, AGHE and aging-studies programs in institutions of higher education strive to:

(1) preparing service delivery personnel who will work directly with older adults;
(2) training educators who specialize in the physical, psycho-social, and policy domains of aging;
(3) educating the society at large about the processes of aging and the implications of an aging society; and
(4) instructing older adults seeking to maximize their options in a complex and challenging age.

AGHE is the Educational Unit of The Gerontological Society of America.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Grey Matters on KKZZ in Ventura, CA will be interviewing Viki Kind on Feb. 25th at 4:30PST

Grey Matters is a weekly radio show on AM 1400 KKZZ, airing each Friday from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Dedicated to empowering the Sandwich Generation and their parents through the aging process. You don’t have to figure this out alone. Aging is not black and white – grey matters!

This innovative and entertaining show is hosted by Cheri Kurman and Jim Duran. Cheri is an attorney, certified by the California State Bar as a specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law. Jim is the Executive Director of Cypress Place Senior Living Facilities in Ventura and this year’s recipient of the California Assisted Living Association’s Outstanding Executive Director Award.

Learn more about Cheri and her firm at www.NormanDowler.com, and Cypress Senior Living Centers at http://www.cypressplaceseniorliving.com

Have a kind and respectful day.

Join me as I interview, Barbara McVicker – “Helping Employees who are Caregiving,” on Feb. 16 at 9AM PST on blogtalkradio.com/kindethics

Barbara McVicker, eldercare expert, national speaker, and author, knows firsthand the benefits and challenges of being a caregiver. Widely sought after, Barbara’s commentary is frequently featured by local and national media organizations including AARP, CNN, NPR, NBC, the “Wall Street Journal” and “USA Today”.

For 10 years Barbara looked after her aging parents while raising two children and struggling to maintain her career as a high-level development director. She mirrored the typical caregiver in the United States – mid-forties, married and employed. Overwhelmed and feeling isolated, she eventually quit her job to care for her parents full-time. It was this decade-long struggle that inspired her to write her first book, “Stuck in the Middle: Shared Stories and Tips for Caregiving Your Elderly Parents”.

About the Book

McVicker’s book “Stuck in THe Middle: Shared Stories and Tips Caregiving Your Elderly Parents” delivers inspiring narratives from caregivers and health care professionals that brings humor, tears and ultimately, hope. Winner of a Midwest Book Award from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association, professionals often refer caregivers to Stuck in the Middle as a primer. Based on her personal experiences, McVicker interviewed hundreds of caregivers producing a guide filled with essential information. Her work serves as a “support group in a book”, so adult children caregivers do not feel so alone and isolated Barbara McVicker wrote Stuck in the Middle for the more than 75 million people in the United States who are providing care for an aging parent.

For more information on Barbara McVicker, speaking engagements, and Stuck in the Middle, visit BarbaraMcVicker.com or email her at Barbara@BarbaraMcVicker.com. Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital

Have a kind and respectful day.

GO WISH Cards – A wonderful tool to explain what you want if you were seriously ill

Coda Alliance presents the ‘Go Wish Game’. It gives you an easy, entertaining way to think and talk about what’s important to you if you become seriously ill. The starter game comes with two packs of cards in contrasting colors and instructions for using the cards individually or in pairs.

For more information about the game, and to play on-line, visit www.gowish.org.

Reach And Teach Says:
“A woman at church came up to us and thanked us for having introduced her to Go Wish. She had given her mother a deck of Go Wish cards and had gone through the deck once with her mom. A month later, her mom had fallen into a coma, and her children were facing very difficult decisions about her care. They disagreed with each other and there was a lot of tension. One of the children had to go to the mother’s home to get something and found the sorted Go Wish card deck and detailed notes the mother had written about her top ten wishes. It was clear what their mother wanted, and the children were relieved to be able to follow her wishes, clearly documented, rather than having to argue with each other about what they each thought their mother might want.”

We feel very lucky that our paths crossed with the amazing people at the Coda Alliance. Having seen what we had done with Teaching Economics As If People Mattered, CIVIO, MicahsCall.org, Tikkun/NSP, and other online projects, the Coda Alliiance asked us if we could help create an online version of Go Wish. We feel that having your desires known and followed, especially when you can not speak for yourself, is a key social justice issue.

Go Wish helps you figure out what’s most important to you and allows you to have discussions about your wishes with people who may someday have to speak for you. If you are a caregiver, or may find yourself in that position, Go Wish is also a very good way for you to learn, ahead of time, what the person you may be caring for wishes. We’ve found the cards incredibly helpful in our own lives as we work with our own aging parents, and when we have shared them with others they have had significant impact.

We’re grateful to have the Coda Alliance as one of our 10/10 partners, helping to make the Go Wish card decks more easily available across the country.

Your Order Includes: You get 2 decks (two different colors) for $22.00 (which includes shipping within the United States – for international orders, please select “International Shipping” from the pull-down menu and we will add $10 to cover the additional postage).

Bulk Orders: Card packs may also be purchased in bulk in quantities up to 64 packs total. Use the pull-down menu to select bulk order quantities. Prices include shipping and handling.

If you’d like to order larger quantities, please call us at 1-888-PEACE-40.

Order Directly from the Coda Alliance:
You can also order decks directly from the Coda Alliance. They have special pricing for very large bulk orders.
https://www.reachandteach.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=557

Have a kind and respectful day.

When there is no good answer – Turning a difficult decision into a better quality of life

Every day, caregivers are faced with painful choices. The other day, a man shared with me that he had promised his mom that he would never put her in a nursing home. But now she needed more care than he could provide. Just this week, she had started a fire in the kitchen. He didn’t want to break his promise but he couldn’t protect her from herself.

This type of situation can be so painful. We want to do the right thing, but sometimes it becomes impossible. I explained to him that even though he had made a promise, he couldn’t stand by and let his mom be in harm’s way. He hadn’t known what the future would hold when he made that promise. I explained to him that as caregivers, we have a responsibility to step in and to make sure the person is safe.

I encouraged him to do what he could to keep her at home. Perhaps he could hire more help or make the house safer. But if those options didn’t work, he had to forgive himself and do the right thing to find a good care facility. This doesn’t mean he won’t feel badly about going back on his word. This is the hard road of caregiving.

Choosing the Least Worst Option

What often helps caregivers making the tough decisions is to realize that sometimes we have to pick the “least worst option.” What does this mean? It means we don’t always get a “good answer” or a “good choice” when making a decision. The only choice may be to pick the least terrible option, because that is the best option available.

Of course, caregivers should work hard to determine if there are any better options available, asking other people for help as they research their choices. But if the only option is one that is less than optimal, we will need to make peace with the situation by doing our best to make a bad situation a little better.

Creating a Better Quality of Life

When the “best” choice isn’t available, we can still make the decision better. As you evaluate the options, think about how your decision will be experienced by the person in your care. What will it feel like to move to a new place? What will it be like to go through a medical test or procedure? How will the decision be perceived through the mind of someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia?

For the gentleman who now needs to place his mom in a memory care unit, he will need to look at the places that are available, to consider what his mom can afford and to make sure the place will meet his mom’s needs. He will also have to look at how he can make the transition easier on his mom. What can he do to make her feel safer when she moves there? How can he bring joy and comfort to her when he visits? What can he do to improve the quality of her life, even though this is not the kind of life she would have wanted? Even though his mom would never have wanted to move out of her home, her son can make each day a little better for her. This is called person-centered care—when we think about how our choices will be experienced by the individual in our care.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Dale Carter – Speaking / Book Tour to Benefit You & Your Aging Parent in Georgia and Florida

Dale Carter – Speaking / Book Tour to Benefit You & Your Aging Parent in Georgia and Florida

Thank you to Benton House and Arden Courts senior living communities for hosting Dale Carter’s presentations and book signings in Atlanta and Florida, January 25th through February 3rd.

If you are in the following areas and have an aging parent, I encourage you to attend! Dale will be highlighting key parts of her book, “Transitioning Your Aging Parent: A 5 Step Guide Through Crisis & Change.”

Learn how to:
• Make the right decision in time of crisis
• Balance the needs of your parent and yourself
• Build your support network

You’ll walk away with strategies, tips and resources that are relevant to your situation and your family.
The seminars are free of charge. However, tickets are required due to the expected demand. To secure your tickets contact the community of interest below.

Georgia
• Tuesday, January 25th, 6 p.m. Benton House-Sugar Hill 770-904-0099
• Wednesday, January 26th, 6 p.m. Benton House-Johns Creek (at Ocee Library) 770-754-5446
• Thursday, January 27th, 6 p.m. Benton House-Douglasville 770-942-9449
Florida
• Tuesday, February 1st, 10:30am. Arden Courts, Largo 727-559-8411 (or email largo@arden-courts.com)
• Wednesday, February 2nd, 6 p.m. Benton Village-Palm Coast 386-445-3500
• Thursday, February 3rd, 6 p.m. Benton House-Titusville 321-383-2112

Have a kind and respectful day.

Caregiving for Seniors 2011 Conference on Saturday, January 22, 2011 @ Melbourne Hilton Rialto – 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Caregiving for Seniors 2011 Conference on Saturday, January 22, 2011 @ Melbourne Hilton Rialto – 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Thanks to the many generous community sponsors of this event,
there is no charge to Family Caregivers!

Conference Keynote:
Teena Cahill, Psy.D – Nationally acclaimed Speaker, Humorist, Author and TV and Radio Show Host will present “Nurturing the Nurturers.” Her audiences are inspired, motivated, and armed with ideas for managing stress without distress, and enhancing innate resilience to bounce back from adversity.
• Empowering Caregivers to Make Difficult Choices, Viki Kind, MA author of The Caregiver’s Path to Compassionate Decision Making ~ Making Choices For Those Who Can’t
• Caregiver Essentials – our panel of experts representing the Medical, Legal and Social Work Professions will field your questions
• Following your complimentary lunch, enjoy dessert with Dr. Rosemary Laird, Medical Director, Health First Aging Institute, author of “Take Your Oxygen First”
• Valuable Community Resources and Connections to Other Caregivers

Have a kind and respectful day.

Improving the Medical Experience of the Person struggling with Alzheimer’s or other memory loss

When a person with Alzheimer’s or dementia is going to have a medical test or procedure, how can we help the person to feel less frightened and to minimize any suffering? If the patient is struggling to understand what will be happening to them, do a practice run-through and show the person the room where the test will happen. Or find a book with pictures that will help him understand what you are talking about. If the person with diminished capacity is afraid of being alone, you may want to introduce him to the nurses who will be working that day. For my dad, we tape-recorded the doctor’s explanations so he could listen to the information over and over again until he felt more comfortable.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the patient may be experiencing symptoms that affect his or her participation. These symptoms could be pain, side effects of medications, loss of hearing or sight, lack of sleep, an undiagnosed illness and grief, to name a few. Find out what can be done to relieve these symptoms to make it easier for the individual to participate in the process. Ultimately, our goal is to think about the quality-of-life questions from the person’s perspective as he or she will experience the consequences of our decisions.

Have a kind and respectful day.

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