Our Services

Objective Help for Families Seeking Care for Elders

Advocacy and Care Management

Trying to provide care to a loved one from a distant location is exasperating, confusing, and expensive.  This is particularly true if the senior is dealing with ongoing medical problems or multiple medical issues with multiple physicians.  Seniors are known to be horrible medical "historians" and often cannot be "trusted" to set up and take their medications in a timely and accurate manner.  Who will be there to listen to the doctor's and nurse's diagnoses and instructions and make sure they are understood and carried out?  Who will make sure that any new or changed prescriptions will be put in place and become a part of the senior's daily regimen?  Who will be there to know what courses of treatment other physicians are pursuing that might have an impact on this physician's course of action?

An especially difficult situation for distant caregivers is when the senior has to be taken to the Emergency Room, followed by a possible admittance.  Who will be there to advise the medical staff about the senior's medical history, medications, or drug sensitivies?  Many times the senior can, with the proper advocacy assistance, go through this process and return home without the distant caregiver having to fly in. 

An occasional circumstance faced by seniors in care facilities is being taken advantage of financially or emotionally by the facility staff or other residents.  Who will be there to observe and evaluate these situations and notify the family?

We do that.

Care Monitoring Services

Having a loved one in a care facility, whether assisted-living, nursing, or memory care, is stressful, especially if the family members live in distant cities or have their own family situations that make it difficult to periodically re-evaluate the performance and management of the facility and to objectively review the condition and adaptation of the care recipient. ECTC provides peace of mind by inspecting and evaluating:

• the facility, including its ownership, management, staffing, operational policies, and state inspection deficiency citations and compliance
• the care recipient and their nursing staff, including their appearance, hygiene, attitude, eating habits, medications, and participation in activities

We provide a written report to the family, by email and/or mail, as desired.

Transition Services

The search for quality elder care services is all about maximizing the quality of life for seniors as they transition between levels of increasing care requirements. The challenge is to provide the best services possible while taking into consideration the emotional, medical, financial, and social realities of the care recipients’ situation. A change in one’s living situation and independence is rarely perceived to be a “good thing”, especially if it is combined with - or due to - a decline in physical or mental capabilities. 

At ECTC we strive to minimize the “pain” felt by both the seniors and their family members associated with searching for and selecting in-home support or health care services or having to move to a facility to receive a higher level of care. We also provide advice and connections to community-based services and to professional service providers, if necessary to get the seniors’ legal and financial affairs set up most effectively.  

Transition Services Include:

      Needs assessment and care planning:

• In-home evaluation of seniors’ medical and physical condition, mental status, financial situation, and safety
• Development of a care plan with support recommendations

      Resource identification, qualification, and selection assistance:

• In-home support – companionship, light housekeeping, bill-paying, transportation, medication reminders, meal preparation, dressing, bathing
• Home health care – bed and chair transfers, insulin, catheters, feeding tubes
• Alternative housing options – continuing care retirement communities, assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, Memory Care specialty units (identification, selection, on-site visits, moves, asset disposal)
• Evaluation of legal documents – elder law attorneys to assist with wills, trusts, powers-of-attorney, advance directives, Medicaid spend-down planning
• Analysis of Financial Assets – financial planners to assist with adequacy of assets for long-term living, repositioning of assets to provide dependable cash flow, and structuring of assets in alignment with will or trust provisions