It was during a visit with her father that Ann Jamison first realized something was wrong.
Jamison”™s father, Dirk Bollenback, had lived alone since his wife”™s passing and was unable to drive on his own.
After a visit to the doctor, the diagnosis was clear.
“One of the biggest things that was missed was that he was lonely and he was depressed and he was isolated,” Jamison said. “We realized that he needed to find a different living situation.”
Bollenback, with his daughter”™s aid, moved into an assisted living community. And he has since remarried.
“He has thrived,” Jamison said. “Now he is back with his peers.”
The process shook her, though, Jamison admits.
“I felt crippled ”“ paralyzed ”“ when my crisis happened and I didn”™t know what to do.”
Jamison, a longtime Fairfield resident, founded Senior Living Options L.L.C. toward the end of last summer in an effort to provide families with the information about elder care options that she and her father had lacked.
“I decided that having my own business would allow me to have that concierge, white-glove level of service that families are looking for,” she said.
While she keeps an office in Stamford, Jamison conducts most of her business from the road, meeting with families and helping them to understand their needs, their options and the costs.
Jamison, who currently operates Senior Living Options on her own, works with a network of providers ranging from independent living communities to assisted living facilities to nursing homes.
She works to educate families about the costs of each facility, what services and activities they offer and what level of care they provide, often bringing in an elder care attorney or financial planner to assist with the process.
The assistance comes free of charge for Jamison”™s clients. Jamison said she works with a network of senior care providers, and that she will receive a fee when families select a provider. However, she emphasized that she does not lean in favor of any one institution or type of facility.
“There are times when I don”™t make any money,” she said. “Even then, it”™s still worth it.”
Jamison said that in the nine months since opening up shop, demand has far outpaced what she initially expected.
And for good reason: more than 10 million Americans over the age of 50 care for their aging parents, according to research by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
The proportion of adult children who provide personal care and/or financial assistance to a parent has more than tripled over the last 15 years, and today, at least a quarter of all adult children provide one of those forms of assistance to a parent.
“I just want to make sure people understand what their options are … and the implications of their decisions,” Jamison said. “A lot of adult children haven”™t even had these conversations with their parents. …My ideal situation would be if people came to me before a crisis happens.”
While the Internet can be a valuable resource, “It doesn”™t tell you about all the nuances,” she said, from the offerings of a given facility to the costs.
According to a November 2012 report by the Mature Market Institute, costs for most types of senior residences rose from 2011 to 2012.
The national average daily rate for a private room in a nursing home was $248, up from $239 in 2011, and the average for a semi-private room was $222, up from $214.
The average monthly base rate in an assisted living community rose to $3,550 from $3,477 in 2011, while the average rates for adult day services and for home health aides were mostly unchanged at $70 a day and $21 an hour, respectively.
Additionally, Jamison said, the laws can affect costs and service options from state to state. Jamison works primarily in the tristate area and extends somewhat into Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with each state featuring subtle differences pertaining to senior care providers and payment options.
“That”™s the kind of information you don”™t get over the Internet.”
