For our purposes, an aging senior is someone facing his or her remaining years of life. Perhaps because of frailty or poor health or simply advanced age, this person is anticipating the end-of-life. When supporting aging seniors, we are no longer interested in accumulating wealth or planning for meaningful retirement lifestyles in senior living arrangements. We are interested at this point in preserving what assets are left and possibly passing them on to the next generation. We are concerned about reducing debt and maintaining adequate income. We are concerned about the need for long term care and the interaction of family members in providing that care. For those seniors who want to remain at home, we must provide the services and support necessary to allow them to age in place. For those seniors who cannot remain at home, we are concerned about a senior living arrangement that provides care support and supervision at the right cost. We are also concerned about proper legal documents and for preparations for the end-of-life such as death, funerals and burials. In addition, we are concerned about health issues and medical treatment and government programs to support health care and long term care.

Seniors are the fastest-growing segment of the population, not only in the United States, but in the world. Individuals age 65 and over represent 16.9% % of our national population – about 56 million people in 2020 – but this will grow to 22% – 85.7 million – in just a matter of 30 years. The majority of this growing population of aging Americans have a number of goals or standards of living they anticipate on maintaining during their retirement years. Many surveys point out that among the more important goals are the following:

1. Having enough savings to cover travel, repairs, home maintenance, major purchases, unexpected medical costs or emergencies.
2. Having enough income to support an adequate lifestyle.
3. Maintaining independence by remaining physically active and mentally acute.

Unfortunately, the loss of one or more of these important goals or standards of living is often one of the most challenging issues facing all seniors. It is important that all of us should plan for this stage of our lives. Unfortunately, many healthy, active seniors ignore the type of planning needed to deal with the final years. In addition, this need for planning often remains unattended by family or other supporters of aging loved ones unless precipitated by some unanticipated event befalling the aging senior, which in turn typically uncovers one or more of the deficiencies listed below.

• Due to unexpected costs or financial exploitation, savings and investments are gone.
• Due to increasing debt and inflation in food, rent, utilities and medical costs or financial exploitation and other issues – income has become inadequate to pay the bills.
• The senior's health is failing which can result in hospitalization, frequent doctor visits and the need for caregiving services.
• The senior is losing his or her independence due to physical disability or dementia or both and caregiving services are needed either in the home or in a care community.
• The senior is accumulating more and more debt in the form of credit cards and line of credit mortgages on the home which in turn is impacting cash flow and the ability to maintain the current standard of living.

For a variety of reasons, seniors themselves and typically their families or supporters often ignore the need for seeking expert help and for planning for the final years. It is often a crisis such as a fall, the inability to pay for services, a need for medical care, hospitalization or a sudden illness or some other precipitating event that results in action being taken - without the benefit of prior planning. Even though the standard of living and the health and financial well-being of the aging senior has been deteriorating for years, by the time an unexpected event lifts the curtain on what has been happening it is often too late to do much to mitigate the eventual outcome. Assets are already depleted; interventions have not been pursued and the family is not ready to accept responsibility for oversight and care. As a result, supporters of aging seniors are now operating in crisis mode. Even at this stage, planning assistance with this crisis is readily available and often possible.

Our goal is to help families uncover the need for assistance or advice with important aging issues long before a crisis occurs. Our team has the experience and knowledge to educate families, provide guidance and possibly provide some of the indicated services. If our collaborative effort cannot match a difficult or challenging aging issue, we maintain a wider network of trusted providers or advisors who can step in and help.

Many Americans do not plan sufficiently for elderly assistance living arrangements or for eldercare. Even with plenty of statistics pointing toward the wisdom of planning, it is our experience that the elderly and their families often struggle to find affirming means to prepare for these future conditions. As an example, the onset of cognitive impairment in an elderly loved one can have the family looking for solutions in a hurried, very stressful manner. Family members of aging seniors are increasingly in the work force and usually have their own personal family issues. They often don't have the time to become involved in caring for their loved ones. Because of the lack of planning, they don't know where to turn or what to do or where to find services or advice. They need to find help quickly but can be frustrated and exhausted by the challenge of putting together a suitable care program without clear and coordinated access to available services.

You have come to this website with concerns that are somehow unique to your loved ones and larger family. It is not a shortcoming of yours that getting clear information about elder care seems difficult or overwhelming. We professionals in the Central Ohio Care Planning Council are dedicated to:

1. Showing you how to plan for future elder care needs.
2. Providing links to specific information about elder care.
3. Helping you connect with services you might need today.
4. Being available for consultations or compensated engagements when appropriate.

You will see that we represent several professional areas, including Assisted Living facility selection, Estate Law, Family Mediation, Financial Planning, Home Care Services, Home Safety Devices, Long Term Care Insurance, and Mortgage Lending. In addition, we continue to grow our network of service providers engaged in the daily operations of serving seniors. When you consider all the elements that can come into play with keeping life meaningful at advanced ages, it’s easy to see

a) the difficulty in bringing it all together, and
b) the wisdom in having professional guidance and advocacy.

Please return often to our website to learn from the library of materials, follow links to agencies and service providers in Central Ohio and see where we give presentations. We work hard to make this a resource that may save you time and trouble searching the internet or sifting through ads.

Senior services are varied and diversified and are often not easy for families to find. Those private sector individuals or companies that provide senior services such as attorneys, financial advisors, home care providers, hospice and senior care communities may have a network for referring services to each other, but few networks exist for referring their services directly to the public. As a general rule, the senior services market is not large enough to justify providers buying expensive media promotion such as newspaper ads, direct marketing or television. It is also difficult for these providers to establish an online presence with a website as there is so much competition from millions of websites and only a few will rise to the top on an Internet search. As a result, families or others seeking help for an aging senior have a difficult time finding that help.

A common practice among care managers, home care providers, legal and financial advisors, end-of-life planners, real estate and downsizing experts and so on is to collaborate with each other and provide a one-stop shop for solutions to critical aging issues.

That is the purpose of our elder planning Council. Our goal is to provide a free and no-obligation community service by educating the public and arranging free consultations with our members or with members of our extended networking group.

Our primary objective is to create well rounded solutions for people seeking us out. We do this through an initial assessment to uncover all the aging issues challenging aging seniors. Typically we work with the children or other supporters of aging seniors, but we can also work with the aging seniors themselves. Once we have completed this assessment, then we can recommend the services of members of our group or other providers in our extended network or government services.