Is Your Practice Informed and Prepared for Dementia Planning?
Being a Dementia Focused Practice® is more than just going through a certification process and throwing the label on your website. Dementia care planning requires buy-in from your team and ongoing education and reeducation that instills consistent understanding and compassion for the communities you serve.
Dementia impacts individuals, families, and communities across the globe. Regardless of where you are, it’s imperative to plan not only for the unique needs of not only those dealing with the disease and its forms but also those who are indirectly impacted. This includes loved ones, dementia caretakers, and more.
Your Whole Staff Should Be Trained
Some firms believe dementia care planning is only for the attorneys themselves. This misses a key portion of your law firm. Clients regularly communicate with secretaries and assistants as much if not more than the attorneys in some cases.
Educating your entire staff guarantees that all the interactions your clients and their families have with your law firm is up to the high standard you set by committing to providing dementia planning. Your clients need to feel welcome and supported in the environment you’re bringing them into.
Understand the Needs of Dementia Caretakers
Dementia planning involves more than just providing care for people with dementia and their families. Dementia caretakers are also a part of the Dementia Focused Practice® ecosystem. Their legal needs differ from their patients, but you need to be prepared for this.
Part of this includes providing a roadmap to caretakers who will rely on your services and guidance throughout the life of their care. Are they personally equipped to handle a certain legal situation pertaining to the individual they are providing care to? Do they know when they need to defer to you for guidance?
These are important questions that dementia caretakers are having to answer every day. Prepare your practice to provide these answers and give peace of mind to the people who are helping to support loved ones in need.
Dementia Planning is a Long-term Commitment
Dementia planning is not just a one-off legal service where clients come in and sign some papers before a handshake and an exit. Dementia planning often means handling clients for well over a decade as they or a loved one transition through the various stages of the disease.
It’s vital that you understand and prepare for this. What does planning look like at various stages of the forms of dementia? Are you evolving the legal guidance and expertise you are providing or attempting to apply a uniform set of standards regardless of where a client is in their dementia journey?
Become a Million Dollar Solution Member
We dedicate extensive time, money, and energy toward providing practices with the solutions they need to provide care to a vulnerable population. People with dementia deserve the respect and representation that anyone else receives.
By becoming a Million Dollar Solution member, you join a network of law firms that’s answered the call to serve these people. Schedule your free strategy session and start your dementia planning journey today.