If You Can’t Find Identify an Advocate: Care Management Services
In an earlier post we discussed the importance of choosing the right person or people to be your child’s Advocate when you are no longer around. Whatever plan you have in place for your child once you are gone will only work as well as the individual(s) you choose to implement it.
However, the very idea of choosing an advocate or set of advocates can be daunting.
Many parents reflect on all that they do for their loved one and find it difficult to ask others to take of those responsibilities.
Some families may live an isolated existence and find themselves with few close friends of family they feel they can ask to act as an advocate.
In other cases, the transience of our modern society may leave a family with no close friends or family nearby.
In these cases, many areas have local non-profits or public agencies that can help shoulder some of the burden. Some parents have a friend that may not live close by serve as an advocate with the understanding that they will partner with these local resources.
In Georgia, we have PLAN of Georgia, which is part of the National PLAN Alliance. This organization, and organizations like it, can fill a void if no suitable set of advocates can be identified. We recommend reaching out to your local NAMI chapter to identify Care Management resources in your area.