Where do you get the interventions or solutions for the problems listed in your care plan? In part, you take them from the continuum of care. What is the continuum of care? It is all the resources for aging adults in your services area. The continuum of care ranges from hospital discharge planners, doctors, elder law attorneys, trust officers, to plumbers, licensed contractors, private duty home health agencies, moving specialists, senior technology teachers, caregiver support groups. It is the body of knowledge of resources you know as a geriatric care manager or aging professional to fix the problems you have just outlined in your care problems.

Every geriatric care manager or aging professional must know a staggering array of other experts who make up the web of senior services in the community. These experts practice in areas to which GCM skills do not extend (attorneys, trust officers, moving companies, plumbers). It is the care manager’s expert knowledge of the continuum of care in the community that is the heart of the care management role. As stated I have blogged before, a Geriatric care manager or aging professional is like Charlotte, the friendly spider. The GCM runs across the web of senior services (continuum of care), linking services, repairing gaps, spinning new solutions, and coordinating answers. You need to know how to locate all those services to implement your care plan and find interventions to the problems you have uncovered.