Help for Caregivers

This post is sponsored by Genworth Financial. All opinions are my own. Read the full CFO disclosure policy here.

As I see my own and my husband's grandparents needing more care as they age, long-term care has really become a relevant topic for me. We've previously discussed what long-term care insurance is, whether and when to buy long-term care insurance, and the cost of long-term care.

Long-term caregiving isn't easy, whether you have to be a hands-on caregiver, or you're more of a coordinator who ensures that your loved one is getting the care they need. That's why I like Genworth Financial's Caregiver Q&A on Facebook. Some of the topics covered are how to choose a professional caregiver, how to select a nursing home, protecting aged loved ones over long distances, and more.

There are also ways to prepare long-term caregiving, as this USA Today article mentions.

Even for those of us who are hopefully too young for this to be a pressing issue, it's good to have a few things in place for the unthinkable: A power of attorney (which gives a specified person legal authority to make financial decisions on your behalf if you're unable to do so yourself); a health care proxy (which gives a specified person the authority to make decisions regarding your medical treatment); and a living will (which should include instructions for end-of-life care).

It's important to have these documents yourself, to make things easier for your loved ones in case something happens to you. And that also gives you a nice opening for a discussion with those loved ones: I just had a durable power of attorney and living will made up, in case something happens to me. Do you have them too? Or something like that.

Think of it the way you do life insurance: hopefully you won't need it, but you'll be kicking yourself (or worse) for doing nothing if you do end up needing it.