QUESTION
So, why don’t you tell me what it is that your company does, and what overall feeling do you want the client to feel?

JACK HALPERN
My Elder Advocate helps people navigate between their eldercare choices. We want people to feel that we are an advocate for them, and that we will guide them towards the best choices for their eldercare needs.

Q
Why don’t you tell me more about your experiences in the field?

JH
I’m a licensed nursing home administrator, and I’ve been in the field for 30 years. I have a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration with a specialty in long-term care administration. I have spent years doing advocacy with political figures and people in the industry.

Q
Tell us a little more about what an advocate actually does?

JH
An advocate is somebody [who] is able to assess the needs of an elderly person and go out there and try to match those needs with what is available out there in long-term care.

Q
What are some of the main issues that you feel an advocate needs to address?

JH
Well, today, in the long-term care world, there are many nursing homes and hospitals that are dealing with many eldercare persons and they are not really keeping within the laws that regulate eldercare services. An advocate is someone [who] has to be out there to protect those rights and to make sure that people are not in situations that could possibly lead to abuse, and that people are afforded all the protections that are within the law.

Q
Can you tell me about needs assessment, what that’s all about?

JH
Needs assessment is where I sit down with an elder person and their family and try to find out exactly what their financial situation, what the health situation is like, what type of long-term care would be best matched to the needs of that particular person. It might be a nursing home, it might be an assisted-living facility that provides more of an independent setting, it might be an adult home, or it might be home health care. Every health situation is different and requires a different approach, and what I do is help. It’s through the needs assessment that I am able to determine what is the best choice for those particular needs.

Q
So, there are different options, in terms of nursing homes? If someone’s more independent, do they have other options?

JH
well of course it really depends on the health and the support services that an elder person has. If somebody needs care constantly because they are bed bound and the family cannot provide the support services required then a nursing home might be the only solution. A nursing home does provide 24 hour care, and that is something that is necessary for people [who] pretty much cannot do at least two out of six of their activities of daily living. Like people who need transferring from their bed, help toileting, or have trouble feeding themselves. Let’s not forget people who need protection, or people with mental conditions, like Alzheimer’s Disease. Certainly somebody can live in a facility where they can live independently and still have available some of the benefits of a nursing home like health care and doctors. In an assisted living facility they can live independently in their own apartment. If they do need medical care it is available to them. If they need more care, then they could have that provided by other types of services. Other people are really independent and can do with an adult home, which provides the most independence, where they’re basically living in their own apartments in their own rooms and are just receiving very minor types of eldercare services.