About Our Council

The majority of Americans do not plan for the future need for the final years of life or for elderly assistance living arrangements or for eldercare. Even when confronted with statistics that would suggest doing some planning, it is our experience that the elderly and their families choose to ignore the reality of needing this type of planning. As an example, when the need for eldercare or other intervention in the life of an aging senior arises due to cognitive impairment, injury or illness, the children or siblings of the elderly needing this assistance often go into crisis mode. They simply aren’t prepared. 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 are frustrated about the apparent lack of help or the fragmented nature of the senior services community.

Unfortunately there is no central source for family members seeking answers or advice. Many senior services are not generally advertised in the community. And even for those that are advertised, the public does not really understand their function. To make matters worse, those who provide the advice and the often indispensable care managers are hidden from view. Even for government senior services information sources, few people know they exist or where to find them.

The Portland Elder Care Council was created to help solve this dilemma with critical aging issues and planning for the final years by providing a free central source of information, advice and services for family members seeking help for their loved ones. Another purpose of our planning Council is to encourage people to prepare for the future need for aging services. We provide articles, workshops and planning to accomplish this goal.

About Aging Seniors

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, healthy, active seniors ignore the type of planning needed to deal with the final years. In addition, this need for planning often remains hidden from 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 doctors 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 having an effect on income and the ability to maintain the current standard of living

For whatever reason, seniors themselves and typically their families or supporters try to 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. 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 critical aging issues. Our team has the experience and knowledge to help families and even provide some of the 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.