Tim Bredow was confused about what to do when he needed to find new living arrangements for his mother, Shirley, an 84-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who was recovering from breast cancer surgery.
After Shirley returned to her assisted living facility from the hospital, the facility staff decided she needed a much higher – and more expensive – level of care.
Tim Bredow, who has a nursing background, disagreed with the assessment. He thought her condition, which covered an 18-day period including her surgery and aftermath, was a short-term challenge that any elderly person might face. To prepare for surgery, Shirley had to stop taking her psychotropic medications, which also likely led to the determination that she needed a higher level of nursing care, he said.
Despite his objections, the care facility stuck with its assessment. That meant Shirley Bredow either had to move into a more intensive care facility for an extra $1,000 a month or she would have to leave.
“No one had talked to us about what they had in mind for Mom, what they had planned for her after surgery,” he said. “Though I work in the health care system, I had no idea of how to figure out what happens next.”
Bredow, who teaches nursing at Bethel College in Arden Hills, turned to a friend and nurse named Connie Dryer. Dreyer had just started a consulting business with three other nurses to guide clients through the stressful and confusing array of care choices for the elderly.
“Even when you’re in the system, it’s costly and hard to find your way through the maze,” said Dreyer, president of the firm.
Two years ago, Dreyer and her partners banded together to offer “integrated, highly personalized” services to help families scope out information about elderly care services and facilities, identify choices and make decision. The four principals, who still have careers besides the consulting business, bring specific skills to the company. All have backgrounds in either home care of long-term care or both.
Their business, based in St. Paul, is called RISE for Seniors. “RISE: is an acronym for Resources, Information, Services and Education.
Target clients are adult children searching for the best care and health services for their elderly parents while juggling the demands of an active work and family life. The “juggling” adds to the confusion and frustration of finding the right care and assistance. The result is often intense disagreements among family members and the elderly parent living in an untenable or unhealthy situation, Dreyer said.
While there are many organizations available to help the elderly, most are limited in scope or purpose, Dreyer said. Often the busy schedules and heavy workloads of case managers, discharge planners and social services do not allow them the time to consider a broad array of options and design a solution for the patient and family, she said. RISE for Seniors tries to help not only with health-related issues but also to offer options for where to live, transportation and legal issues.
The issue of choosing nursing care for the elderly will rise as poe0ple continue to love longer. The number of Minnesotans who are 65 years or older will increase 34% by 2015 and 60% by 2020, according to U.S. Census data. And given that their caregivers are, on average, 46 years old with a job (two out of three are in the work force), Dryer and her associates expect that the need for their services will continue to grow. The number of people living into their 80s is also growing rapidly, which means caregivers will be that much older as well.
Most of the company’s clients – they have served 30 since opening for business in 2003 – face a complex set of issues and questions. For this typical client, the firm agrees on an overall service price which averages about $500 to $600, says Sue Buelow, one of the four principals.
“If a client has a fairly straightforward issue, we’d likely charge by the hour to get them on the right path,” Buelow said.
As for the Bredows, Dreyer’s new firm helped them assess Shirley’s needs and find the right resources. That eventually led to Boutwell’s Landing, a care facility in Oak Park Heights, where Shirley lives in a unit focused on those with memory problems.
