Elder Care: Providing For Parents

Bostonians Rachel and Tom Claflin wanted to go to California last Christmas to visit three of their children. But what about Tom's parents, who lived three blocks away and, at 86 and 89, couldn't manage on their own? No problem. Rachel and Tom were able to take their trip, secure in the knowledge that the elder Claflins had volunteers available to check on them daily, a round-the-clock emergency phone line and access to discounted nursing care, drivers and home repair, among other services.

Both generations of Claflins belong to a "virtual" community called Beacon Hill Village, which has arranged for residents 50 and over in the Beacon Hill, Back Bay and West End sections of Boston to pay a yearly fee to obtain discounts of 10% to 50% on a wide range of care and services. Members also attend regular lunches, classes, concerts and other events. The year-old nonprofit organization, run by a social worker who directs a staff and a network of volunteers, has 150 members. The annual fees are $500 for individuals and $600 for households (but $100 for households with an annual income of less than $45,000). "Even though my in-laws live three blocks away and we help them in a variety of ways, it alleviates some tension to know that they have someone in the neighborhood who can help them out if they need anything," says Rachel, an artist who helped found the organization and serves on its board. "Novel concepts like Beacon Hill Village can really help people take care of their aging parents."

Novel concepts are certainly needed, especially for baby boomers who, like Rachel, 60, and Tom, 61, are part of the "sandwich generation"--those with older, sometimes declining parents on one side and their own children and grandchildren on the other. "There is extraordinary stress in so many ways on today's baby boomers who are caught in the middle and have their own families, marriages and jobs to maintain," says Suzanne Mintz, president and co-founder of the National Family Caregivers Association, an educational and advocacy organization in Kensington, Md. Says Gary Barg, editor of the magazine Today's Caregiver and author of The Fearless Caregiver: "Boomers, who know that they will have their own elder-care needs down the road, are looking for new options and solutions right now for their parents."

Besides virtual communities, some of the new solutions being tried are:

--Statewide programs that allow family members of Medicaid recipients to receive stipends for caring for them.

--The growing use of geriatric-care managers to stand in for family members who live at a distance.

--An increase in the practice of home sharing among the elderly.