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Introduction to a Career

If you were anything like me, when you were a child, you yearned to be a care consultant. You dressed in care consultant costumes on Halloween. You asked for care consultant outfits for birthday gifts, and you asked the multicultural gift-giver of your choice, sometime around the winter solstice, to deliver care consultant action figures. Your parents humored you, realizing that you’ll grow out of this fantasy because, when you were growing up, there was no such thing as a care consultant.

I began working with elders in 1984, but I didn’t start calling myself a care consultant until a decade later. Even today, hardly anyone labels themselves as such, sticking with the well-known term, care manager. Yet, there is a significant difference between their roles. In short, a care consultant guides the concerned parties — usually, family members of the client (who is the elder, or otherwise, infirm) — to appropriate services. This typically requires a thorough assessment of the situation that includes the needs and wishes of the client, and an agreement among those involved in the care decisions — usually, the family. If the family is unable or uninterested in managing the care, they hire a care manager to do that. About one-third of the time that I’m hired for care consultation, I’m retained in the role of care manager.

Schooling and Training

While you may have guessed that I didn’t really plan let alone “yearn” to be a care consultant, for as long as I can remember, I did plan to be a social worker. However, my work with elders came from an indirect route.

Before grad school, I did some work in an in‑patient hospital setting, and became determined to work with the severely mentally ill. Following getting my MSW, I took a position working in a residential treatment center for chronic schizophrenics. During my five years there, I rose to program director. Moving on from that program, I followed my husband-to-be to a small town, where the only opening in the counseling center was as director of geriatric services. I was hired for my supervision experience, as I had no experience with elders.

My grad school classmate and friend had been working with elders since graduation. My agency agreed to pay for distance supervision, via phone calls. With her help, I managed my own work, supervised a nurse and clinician, and earned my state’s recognition as a Geriatric Specialist.

The last decade has seen care consultation/management college programs spring up as a specialty. They’re taught primarily in geriatrics disciplines by academics who rarely have clinical experience. As with any profession, knowledge and theory can help you only so far. That’s why health-care professionals do internships and residencies.

Clinician-lead care consultation and care management training is rare. This book is an attempt to guide new practitioners into the profession, whether within a organized training program or through self-education.

Summary Points for review

• A care consultant guides the concerned parties — usually, family members of the client (who is the elder, or otherwise, infirm) — to appropriate services.
• A care manager manages the services.
• Care consultation and care management are clinical, not academic, vocations.
• Though the demand for trained professionals is growing, appropriate training is still rare.
• This book is designed to be an aid to that training.