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'Panic
Person' Gives Peace of Mind
By: Stephanie Whittaker, Montreal Gazette March 17, 2003
About 11/2 years ago, Sam Wendel
realized that his aged, widowed mother could no longer adequately care for
herself in her own home. It was an anxious time. Wendel lives in
California, his mother in Montreal. During a period of eight months,
Wendel flew repeatedly to Montreal to hire caregivers for his mother,
although he admits he didn't know what to look for "besides kindness
and neatness." Eventually, his mother would
fire her caregivers and Wendel would have to return to hire another. Then, six months ago, he
discovered Dee Davidson, a geriatric-care consultant, through a referral.
Davidson offers a service that is unique, but desperately needed in
Montreal. She assesses the needs of her
clients' elderly parents and secures services for them, acting as their
patient advocate. "Living in L.A., I needed a
panic person to take care of things in Montreal for me," Wendel said.
"Dee told me she would be like my professional older sister, which
was a relief. I'm an only child." Davidson has since helped move
Wendel's mother into a senior's home. She visits weekly and is Sam
Wendel's representative in Montreal to provide for his mother's needs. Wendel's family situation
parallels that of many other expatriate Montrealers, said Davidson, whose
clients are spread across North America - in California, Alabama, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. "When I was launching my
business as a geriatric-care consultant, I discovered that there is a
generation of people who left Montreal between 1970 and 1985 as young
adults," Davidson said. "They left behind healthy
parents who were in their 60s. Those parents are now aging. For many,
their spouses have died. And their middle-aged children, who don't live
nearby, are not just the sandwich generation. They're the club-sandwich
generation. They're in their 40s, 50s and 60s. They may have children.
Some may have grandchildren." But what all those baby-boomers
have in common, she added, is that they do not live within geographical
proximity of their aged parents who need care. Even those who have remained in
Montreal, within easy reach of their parents, are generally juggling
child-rearing and demanding careers. "They have busy careers and
families and they travel for business," she said. "And many just
don't know how to access quality care, how to choose a nursing home,
evaluate home-care staff. They don't know about medications and they don't
know what questions to ask." Clearly, there was a niche in
the Montreal market for Davidson's services. A geriatric nurse who has
worked at everything from floor duty to being the director of two private,
long-term care facilities for the elderly, Davidson has been in geriatric
care since 1991. "When I was director of
those facilities, I sensed that the families of elderly people were at a
loss about how to make informed decisions, especially at a distance, on
their parents' behalf. They had neither the knowledge nor experience to
know if their parents were getting good care. They were vulnerable and
anxious, particularly if they were out of town." Davidson's business as a
geriatric-care consultant began just over a year ago when someone asked if
she would consider working on behalf of an out-of-town family. Her role
would be to act as the family's representative vis-à-vis their elderly
father, who was in a nursing home and suffering from dementia. "The family would give me
written permission to visit the man and to discuss his medical care,
treatment and living conditions with the doctors at the nursing home. I
said yes," Davidson said. The business grew so rapidly
that Davidson has had to hire staff. Her service begins with a
nursing assessment. "I have a long
questionnaire and I assess the environment the person is living in. I want
to know how safe the environment is. I want to know about the person's
social contacts and about medications." Davidson said the adult children
of her elderly clients are the ones who hire her, but she also receives
referrals through CLSCs and financial institutions. "I've had calls from
financial institutions whose elderly clients are no longer able to handle
their own finances. They'll be calling trust officers and telling them
they need help to buy underwear," she said. While some of her elderly
clients have cognitive impairments, others are mentally adept but
physically frail. Davidson said she works on behalf of seniors who live in
their own homes and those who live in nursing homes or seniors'
residences. She also vets institutions for her clients. "As an individual who has
no bias or interest in recommending one residence over another, I don't
represent any particular nursing home," she said. "I represent
my clients' interests." Once a family retains Davidson's
services, they pay her a monthly retainer fee. She visits each of her
seniors once a week to assess their health and needs and organizes
services for them. "I've done everything from
arranging a funeral for someone who had no family to arranging moves into
seniors' homes," she said. "I'll arrange for blood
tests, for visiting physiotherapists, the works. I'm not an agency. I'm a
consultant. I co-ordinate all aspects of their care by contracting out
tasks to individuals or agencies. "I also help my clients
gain access to public services, whether they be CLSCs, clinics or
hospitals. If one of my elderly clients has to go to an emergency room, I
arrange to take their medical file there to inform the emergency-room
staff and I ensure there's a companion there for my client." One woman, who engaged
Davidson's service for her mother but who asked not to be named, said
having a consultant who is conversant with medicine is essential. "Dee is a nurse, so she's
capable of going into hospitals to assess a person's health," the
woman said. "She can ask all the right questions when she accompanies
her clients to medical appointments. And she knows how drugs interact. She
looks after details and knows where to get such things as medical
equipment and physiotherapy." The woman dubbed Davidson
"family by proxy." Sam Wendel concurred. "When
we moved my mother into a residence, Dee helped me go through her
apartment. I kept getting stalled, looking at family photographs and she
kept me going, deciding what to keep and what to send to charity. She has
an inordinate amount of compassion." Davidson said the demand for her
service is a result of Montreal's unique demographics. "I don't think my services would be necessary in Toronto," she mused. "People who live away from their aging parents feel a lot of guilt, pressure, anxiety and confusion. But if you know you have a system in place, the anxiety and fear are alleviated." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
