Elder care has its own vocabulary, policies, procedures, and protocols. Few people without training in the intricacies of elder rights and legislation can be expected to take over the support of an elder family member without a trained resource.

AEA is actively involved in every aspect of elder care and can be considered an authority to be accessed by families when faced with a variety of decisions. The company is available to—

• Provide information and referral to local services
• Facilitate communications among family members
• Facilitate communications between family members and service providers
• Conduct inter-family mediations as needed
• Manage local support for long-distance care
• Provide support to children of aging families
• Offer crisis intervention
• Conduct informative seminars for children of parents suffering from Alzheimer's or other late-life diseases

Long-term care facilities. While only 5% of the elder population is in a nursing home at any one time, approximately 20% to 30% of all people can expect to spend some time in a nursing home facility.

How does a family choose the best alternative for their aging loved one? Few people outside of the elder care industry are qualified to recommend a long-term care residence.

Regrettably, the financial demands of the business of nursing homes follow basic financial parameters— keep costs low to maximize return on investment. Nursing homes, as commercial entities, are generally found to pay minimal wages, while often limiting services to the barest of necessities. Even compassionate nursing home operators attempting to provide better than average services find the economic realities of business to be constraining.

AEA deals with nursing homes and other long-term care facilities on a regular basis and can evaluate which building and staff best fits the needs of a specific elder, based on social, financial, and health criteria.

In-home care. A growing movement in the United States, and what appears to be the approach that will be taken for the foreseeable future, is to provide care and support of elders in their own homes for as long as they can live somewhat independently.

The greatest advantage to this concept is that the elder continues to live at home, rather than in a home. The challenge is that elders frequently experience a need for care, concern and support that their immediate family may not be able to provide.

Often, the family of an elder is concerned with children, jobs and the daily challenges and tensions of their own lives to become actively involved in the management of their elder loved-one's needs.

AEA has a network of providers that meet its exacting criteria to call on when in-home care is determined to be the best alternative.

AEA can provide the experience and expertise to advise and support the family's decisions. The company has the credentials, staff and capability to manage the care of a family's elder(s).