Older Adults and People with Disabilities
Care Management & Consultation
Helping people stay healthy and well in their homes and communities
About
Care Management & Consultation serves adults of all ages who need support to meet physical, social, and financial care needs and those who care for them. Services are provided throughout the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Eligibility
Ages served
18+
Genders served
All genders
Payments accepted
Fee (Private Pay); Insurance accepted
Referral needed?
No
Maximizing Independence
Planning for the Future
Helping families find relief and peace of mind
Everyone needs help sometimes and seeking help is a sign of resiliency and strength. Caregivers and families of older adults and people with disabilities often need to juggle an overwhelming variety of resources to meet the everyday needs of their loved one. Our experienced care managers collaborate with individuals and their families to provide relief and peace of mind through coordinated solutions.
The Care Management & Consultation team is made up of social workers with more than 50 years of combined experience navigating and coordinating resources to support the physical, social, and financial needs of older adults and people with disabilities. Our compassionate care managers interact with a broad network of professionals to develop a thorough understanding of each person’s unique needs and identify the appropriate supports to meet these needs.
Our care managers are deeply committed to exceptional care and participate in ongoing training to ensure they provide high-quality care management services to the people they serve. While they specialize in geriatric services, our care managers are practiced facilitators, moderators, and mediators for the people they serve and their families to help establish systems for the person to live safely at home or determine if it is time to move to more supported living settings.
Every person is unique, which is why we never use a one-size-fits-all approach. Our care managers work with each person to determine what services are needed, create pathways to access needed services, and coordinate with all the individual’s supports to ensure the services work effectively together while maximizing independence and quality of life.
Care Management can:
- Recommend service options needed to remain living safely at home. Our care managers have more than 50 years of combined experience working with health and social service delivery systems and are savvy in accessing the maze of community support services and navigating the complexities of healthcare systems.
- Interact with healthcare and other professionals to ensure a comprehensive plan of care. Our care managers can facilitate communication among the multiple healthcare providers and help the people they serve and their families obtain critical information.
- Be the eyes and ears for out-of-town family members. Our compassionate care managers can monitor health and service needs and be the single point of contact for family members, providing peace of mind that someone is checking in regularly with the person in need.
- Provide assistance for families who are in conflict. Our care managers can serve as a neutral, objective professional who is experienced in assessing the functional abilities and needs of a person with a physical or cognitive impairment.
- Help determine when to move to a more supported living setting. Through their collaborative approach, our experienced care managers can help the people they serve and their families sort through living arrangement issues, identify solutions, and determine an appropriate, dignified plan of care.
Care Management Team
Our Services
Our care managers perform a comprehensive, multi-dimensional assessment which evaluates memory and cognition, health, daily functioning, safety, environment, support systems, and future planning.
Our care managers develop a tailored care plan which includes recommendations for services to promote safe living at home, options available for other living arrangements, financial and legal planning tools, problem-solving strategies, and other services need to enhance safety and quality of life.
Our care managers interact with healthcare and other professionals to ensure high-quality, cost-effective care is provided. They monitor these supports to ensure the person’s needs are met. As care needs change, our care managers reassess and make recommendations about how to adjust the care plan to make certain that the person’s needs continue to be met.
Our care managers can meet with family members to review the person’s situation and provide consultation regarding services, housing, care options, and other needs.
Our care managers can serve as a liaison for family members who cannot be present to keep them informed and involved.
“Thank you for your wonderful assistance on that morning. Everyone thought you were terrific – and just knowing what the family needs right now. We were really drifting, knowing there were so many difficult issues on the horizon, and suddenly we feel we have a direction and a plan.”
–A Care Management client
Why choose VOA’s Care Management services?
Our care managers are licensed professionals who adhere to the Minnesota Board of Social Work and the Aging Life Care Association standards and ethics to maintain the highest level of service for our clients and their families.
Our care managers have the broad experience to effectively partner with older adults and their families to achieve solutions for the most complex situations. They are experienced professionals and are not scared away by “challenging” clients, family dynamics, or situations. Our care managers use assertive, yet positive, communication techniques to assist the people they serve and their families in reaching consensus for important caregiving decisions.
Dementia and Similar Conditions
Our compassionate care managers have a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of dementia and other similar conditions. They have deep experience providing services for people affected by dementia and cognitive impairments including accurate assessment, and both short-term and long-term planning. Our care managers know how and when to appropriately intervene with those experiencing these conditions, as well as how to effectively support families.
Our care managers examine an individual’s entire situation by evaluating their medical health; physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning; legal and financial issues; and support systems including family, friends, church, doctors, lawyers, home services, and others. Seeking the underlying causes of unusual or problematic behaviors or situations, our care managers can recommend the most effective care solutions.
Our care managers respect the individuality of each person they serve and advocate for them to live in accordance with their unique personal goals and values, while balancing needs and concerns for safety.
Our service agreement helps assure that the people we serve and their families understand estimated time and costs upfront, so there are no surprises. We only bill for services needed, requested, and performed. Our care managers are salaried employees and billable hours are not our priority. We never accept or pay referral fees and our services may be terminated at any time.
Our detailed assessment and recommendation reports offer a precise, unbiased review of the person’s needs including their medical, emotional, cognitive, functional, legal, financial, and support system situations. These reports help share a consistent understanding of the person’s situation among family members, as well as medical, legal, and other professionals, encouraging informed caregiving decisions.
Our care managers understand the cost, impact, and likelihood of success for cases that go to court. Our interventions can prevent or settle a contested case without the pain and expense of a lengthy court trial. Our care managers have more than 20 years’ experience providing expert court testimony which can significantly shorten a trial. They can serve as neutral professionals to provide credible fact-based testimony conveying the person’s capacity, needs, best interests, in addition to providing assessment and recommendations.
Our services aim to ensure the person’s safety, health, and overall well-being without fostering unnecessary dependence. Our care managers promote the person’s individual strengths to help maximize their independence, as well as set clear goals and objectives. Once the goals and objectives are met, care managers help transition oversight for care to family or others, as appropriate. Our care managers remain available for support and consultation as needed.
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