Dealing with the Infirm: Older Building Residents & Geriatric Care

"A geriatric care manager identifies the aides, supervises them – not necessarily directly, but if they're working with the agency, they liaison with them," according to Birenbaum.

Geriatric care managers are professionally licensed individuals. They received certifications from a variety of institutions, are overseen by the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, and must have a license to be certified. The majority are social workers, like Birenbaum.

Having a GCM could be an important asset in a building with a growing elderly population, according to some experts. Geoffrey Mazel, a partner in the law firm of Hankin & Mazel, says that there's a "huge need for it, when dealing with an aging population" in co-ops and condos. Currently, he doesn't know of any buildings that have a GCM working with residents.

That's not as surprising as you might think. According to Birenbaum, she does not work directly with boards. Instead, she'll enter into a contract with relatives or neighbors of the elderly resident, and act as a liaison between them. For example, she was referred to a friend, a professor at New York University, who was on the board of her co-op.

"She had a problem with a resident. He had dementia and was a hoarder. My friend called me and asked if I could help; I was able to place him eventually in a nursing home." The board, however, did not contract with Birenbaum for her services; instead, neighbors entered the contract and paid her.

From a management perspective, a hands-off board makes sense. Ellen Kornfeld, a vice president with the Lovett Group, a management firm, says she'd never personally recommend an individual geriatric care manager, unless it was someone she knew – and even then, she'd have reservations.

"In Manhattan, it's very hard; you don't get a lot of them in buildings, where the buildings hire them to work. I don't think we're equipped as agents to make those recommendations," she explains. "You have to know them and their references. I would be reluctant, if it was my mother, unless you were recommending them and saying you used her. [As managers,] we have to be careful."

Caution is a good strategy, but boards should be aware of the option. Birenbaum says that she and other GCMs work with families both local and long distance, but it's the faraway relatives that have the most difficulty monitoring elderly residents. She suggests not waiting until a person is in an emergency situation, but rather sitting down with family members beforehand to work out a plan.

Her services can be summed up as "project management on behalf of the family/friends/relatives. I do things that the family may or may not be able to do based on location, or can't handle because they don't have time. I'll go with the resident to doctors, spend time with them if they're in the ER or hospital, and work with doctors to manage care."

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