Planning ahead for life’s unexpected circumstances
Life after 60 is great! You’re older, wiser and still going strong. Or maybe life has thrown you a curve and you need a little extra support. Whatever your situation, it’s important to educate yourself on the services available to you… especially before you need them.
Neighbors Who Care is one organization that can help. Our volunteers offer free services to seniors in the Sun Lakes/south Chandler area, including transportation, shopping/errands, dinner delivery, friendly visiting, minor repairs, reassurance calling and respite care. We have been serving our community for 24 years, and our volunteers provide help to hundreds of clients each year. It continues to be our pleasure to serve our clients and help them remain independent in their own homes for as long as feasibly possible.
While Neighbors Who Care makes a tremendous impact in our area, there are services that we do not provide, such as meal preparation, medication administration and in-home care. There are, however, plenty of reputable companies who provide these and other services.
Educating yourself on services now can save you lots of time and trouble in the future. We see so many people suddenly find themselves in need, and they don’t know where to turn. And there are many who don’t realize the variety of services that are available to them.
Palliative Care: Take palliative care, for example. As defined by the National Institute on Aging, palliative care is a resource available to anyone who is living with a serious illness. This can include heart failure, COPD, cancer, dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
The purpose of palliative care is to improve quality of life by helping to ease discomfort resulting from illness symptoms. Palliative care also helps patients and their caregivers understand their choices and can be provided along with medical treatment, regardless of a person’s prognosis. Over time, if it is determined by a doctor or the palliative care team that ongoing treatment is no longer helping, a decision can be made to transition to hospice or to continue comfort care through the palliative care team.
The decision for hospice is made with an end-of-life outcome within six months. Palliative care, on the other hand, is designed to provide medical, social, emotional and practical support for as long as needed. Palliative care can be provided in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics or at home and may be covered by Medicare, Medicaid or other insurance policies. Check with your insurance provider for more information.
Serving Our Community: At Neighbors Who Care, we are committed to helping our clients in as many ways as possible. Partnering with other businesses and organizations that serve the senior community is one way that we can expand the scope of service beyond our regular offerings.
If you would like to learn more about Neighbors Who Care and how we may help you, or if you would like to become a volunteer or financial donor, please call us at 480-895-7133 or visit our website at www.neighborswhocare.com.