Introduction to Elder Care in Encino

If you already know what you need, click through to In-Home Care or Assisted Living or Nursing Homes. There is one other term you may see, CCRCs (Continuing Care Retirement Communities), which combine all of these, but there are aren't many close to Encino (info here).

If you don't know what you need, an option is to do your research at the California Department of Aging website (here). But if you just want a brief intro to what these things cost in California, try the Genworth website here, then click on California. You can refine it further to Los Angeles County. The bottom line is that in-home care costs have remained flat but assisted living and nursing home costs continue to climb rapidly.

This next section assumes you are researching for your parents. Once they become dependent, they are looking at years of skilled and unskilled assistance and paying for it can drag them down to poverty. Some are lucky enough to have a lot of money or Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance or they depend on their children, but many end up on public assistance. So let's start with that.

It comes in the form of Supplemental Security Income (that's monthly payments by the state and federal government) - start the process at the excellent SSI website here. This automatically enrolls your parent in Medi-Cal (it's Medicaid - public insurance that pays for medical care and long term care). Over time, Medi-Cal has become the primary form of public insurance for low income elderly and pays for all those who cannot afford LTC costs.

Contrary to what many people believe, Medicare (the primary source of health insurance for adults 65+) pays for very limited LTC cost - and for a relatively short time, and mostly for those who need rehabilitative care after injury or a major medical event such as stroke or hip fracture. More here.

Let's take a step back.

Before the financing question comes up, what do your parents actually need? You may need to consider an evaluation by a social worker since most of us do not know how to identify all our parents' needs or what to do about them.

Those in their seventies, eighties, and nineties often have multiple medical conditions and possibly some functioning difficulties and disabilities. Diseases such as arthritis often lead to difficulty walking, climbing stairs, going shopping, or using utensils when cooking. Dementia and Alzheimer’s reduce one’s ability to remember how to cook or handle finances or use the telephone. Strokes can lead to inability to feed oneself of go to the toilet or take a bath. Depending on the range of function and the future outlook of your parent, modifications in the home plus a housekeeper may address their needs. For some, placement in a facility may be the only option.