How to Choose the Best Long Term Care Facility for your Aging Loved One
By Spiro Verras
Choosing a care setting for someone you love can be difficult, particularly when their needs have grown beyond the support family can provide at home. A thoughtful comparison of care needs, staffing, costs, location, and daily life can help you make a more confident decision.
How...Protecting Your Assets from Nursing Home Expenses
By Spiro Verras
Planning for long-term care is about preserving choices as well as understanding costs. A useful plan considers the care you may need, the resources available to pay for it, and the people who can help if managing those decisions becomes difficult.
Understand which coverage may payMedicare...
Buzz Aldrin’s 2018 Family Dispute: Elder Exploitation and Personal Autonomy
By Spiro Verras
This article originally discussed Buzz Aldrin's 2018 family litigation. It is preserved as a historical example, with the reported 2019 resolution and a clearer distinction between disputed allegations and established facts.
The historical dispute and reported resolutionIn 2018, Aldrin filed a Florida lawsuit involving two of...
Exploring Long Term Care Insurance
By Spiro Verras
Planning for future care begins with a practical question: if you need help with daily activities, how would you like that help to be provided, and how would it be paid for? Long-term care insurance is one possible part of that plan. Whether it is...
Making Your Advance Directive in Florida
By Spiro Verras
Health care planning gives you a way to explain your preferences and identify someone you trust to help with decisions. The conversation can be personal, but the practical goal is straightforward: make your wishes easier to understand and your documents easier to use when they...
Elder Abuse Remains a Problem in Florida
By Spiro Verras
Concerns about an older person's safety deserve attention, whether the person lives at home, with family, or in a care facility. Abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation can take different forms. The goal is to respond to specific concerns while respecting the person's dignity and wishes.
Know...Nursing home arbitration agreements
By Spiro Verras
Choosing a nursing home involves decisions about care as well as the admission paperwork. Understanding an arbitration agreement gives your family one less uncertainty to carry into that decision.
You have a choiceA nursing facility participating in...
Things to Consider When Choosing a Nursing Home
By Spiro Verras
Choosing a nursing home is a significant decision, often made while a family is also managing a health change or hospital discharge. A structured comparison can help you focus on the person's needs, preferences and practical support.
Start with the level of care neededAssisted living and...
Medical Errors and Patient Safety: Understanding the 2016 Research
By Spiro Verras
A widely discussed 2016 paper in The BMJ drew attention to deaths associated with medical error. Its authors, Martin Makary and Michael Daniel, argued that medical error was insufficiently captured in conventional cause-of-death reporting. Their analysis estimated more than 250,000 deaths a year and compared...
Adult Day Care Centers: A Historical Look and Practical Questions for Families
By Spiro Verras
Historical context: This article was originally published in May 2016 and discussed All Smiles Adult Day Care in the Venice and Sarasota area. Its focus was the role of privately operated day services, support for people who may wander and respite for family caregivers. Older...