As part of a lifestyle and aging series, we’re working with renowned photographer Terry Lorant to showcase inspirational leaders in the industry. Each month, we’ll feature one or a few inspirational member(s) of the Amazing Care Network community who is using his or her voice to empower others in the collective aging experience. Read, in their own words, what the Amazing Care Network’s efforts mean to them.

This month, we’re proud to feature Linda & Kevin Jahnke, Owners of Jahnke Consulting and Long Term Care Alliance and Members of Amazing Care Network.

 

ACN: Please share your story!

My husband Kevin and I have had a long term care insurance practice in the San Diego area for 32 years. Our clients are aging into their policies now, they’re getting into their 80s and starting to need help. And we found that our clients were having a lot of trouble and difficulty getting their benefits from their long-term care insurance policies.

In particular, one of my favorite clients passed away in her home tragically because she had very poor care and it was totally avoidable. But when everything settled and everybody found out what had happened to her, the family came to me and described the situation. She had a really good policy, and it was distressing to them that she had the means and she had the desire to pay for care for herself as she aged and it didn’t work out. That was pretty devastating to us because we have thousands of clients who will be needing their insurance. And we thought, “How are they going to find care?” If their kids are not involved, then what? This client really didn’t have help.

So I became a patient advocate; I’m a board-certified patient advocate and we started changing our practice. And so now, for people in need of help getting their benefits out of their policy, we shepherd them through that process. We take the claim over and we manage it for them and we plug in care providers.

ACN: What are your thoughts on caregiving and long-term care?

Cora and I have a lot in common because her concern is getting care when you need it. Most people don’t pre-plan to get home care. They don’t pre-plan to get hospice care. They just don’t; who does that? So what we want to do for our clients is when that crisis comes up and their family calls us, we know what they have in their insurance policy and we can shepherd them through a process of getting quality care and oversee that to make sure that they’re getting what they need and then making sure that their benefits are being paid to them on time. We oversee that whole process.

We just had our most recent Amazing Care meeting in San Diego recently, and the focus was pharmacology. The pharmacological issue with the elderly is a huge problem. I have a client who was in assisted living for five years because she was overmedicated. Her family started weaning her off her medicine and she’s home now. She still gets home care, but she doesn’t need to be in an assisted living facility and it was all due to her medication. With Amazing Care you can access these kinds of resources. You can communicate with a pharmacist to ask questions or talk to someone like myself who knows long-term care insurance inside and out. Cora’s heart for this type of thing is remarkable.

We have to get our community and our colleagues to understand that we need to collaborate a lot better. There are so many different areas of care for people in their 80s and 90s. And in particular if they have a cognitive impairment there’s just no way they can navigate through these complex processes.

 

 

Join ACN! Learn more HERE. If you’re an ACN Member and would like to be featured, please contact amazingcarenetwork@gmail.com.