Power of Attorney Project

This technology-based project brings together a wide variety of experts from various industries and disciplines to educate adult children and seniors about improving their literacy skills relating to POA topics such as:

Senior Care, Health and Safety
Housing Options
Money Management, Tax Issues / Credits
Financial Planning, Insurance Options
Estate Planning (including Wills, POAs)
Funeral Planning

This project targets:

Those who are already named. They may be knowledgeable, but could use more information to do a better job
Those who expect to be named. They really have no idea yet what the job involves or where to seek help
Those who have not yet been named. Perhaps they need answers to their questions, and don’t know where to turn

These people may be seniors who are responsible for perhaps a spouse, sibling, neighbor or even their own parent. These people can also be the adult children of seniors. Most Canadians according to a recent BMO study have Wills (54% of the population) & within that group 80% appoint a family member as their attorney (POA/SDM). Most have the responsibilities to manage and make the decisions around both care and property. Most are family members or family caregivers who are trusted, but not skilled to take on this very important role. Most are lay people. Most don’t have all the answers but most would like to be more educated to do the best possible job.

Project Tools

Podcasts

Click Here to Listen to Podcasts

Conversations that Matter: The Power of Attorney Project brings together experts such as: care managers, pharmacists, retirement homes executives, lawyers, accountants, trust officers, funeral directors, social workers, etc. Here are a few details about our Podcasts:

- - Each podcast will feature a different topic and a different expert. Each will be a telephone interview that is pre-planned with a series of questions and answers. These telephone interviews will be recorded and aired as part of a planned schedule.
  - The content will be short, easy to understand, and eclectic
  - The podcasts will not provide legal or other advice, but will raise issues that our audience can further explore on their own, in their own local communities. Intergenerational listeners will then be more educated and able to tackle and solve their own issues because of their improved literacy skills
  - The series will be an educational smorgasbord of ideas, trends, comments and tidbits on interesting and diverse topics that our audience will find useful, timely and relevant to their lives
  - We will reach our target market where they live, on their own terms and when they have the time and energy to listen and learn. The best way to do this is by leveraging technologies such as podcasts
  - The podcasts will also include a “Social Forum” where website visitors will be able to continue the conversations on-line and be able to offer suggestions for future podcast topics
  - Aired podcasts will be stored and cataloged. Site visitors will be able to scan the list of podcasts and “click, listen and learn” at their own pace
  - Contact information about each guest expert will be included so that site visitors may contact the guest experts to further explore the topic and discuss their issues in a confidential manner.

Our podcast draws experts from various industries and disciplines together who are all individually marketing and servicing seniors, adult children. It will be a collaborative, technology-based social forum where experts can share their knowledge & their families can significantly improve their knowledge, skills & confidences by being better armed with improved knowledge. This will be a “call to action” for families to solve their issues, find solutions to their problems and have greater peace of mind.

Events

On January 24, 2015, Caregiving Matters produced a full day workshop with experts speaking on a variety of Power of Attorney topics. We had three fantastic lawyers, several social services professionals and the OPP talking about POA investigations. The recorded videos from this session can be found on this page.