A Licensed
Care Manager
Who Truly Understands Your Situation
Personalized
caregiving advice from licensed and credentialed
geriatric care managers can truly make a difference in the
lives of your elderly parents and family members,
particularly if they are highly compassionate,
caring professionals.
Paula
Tchirkow, MSW, LSW, ACSW, president
of Allegheny Geriatric Consultants and associate
Juanita Nealer, LSW, ACSW, CMC are two of these caring, highly
experienced geriatric care managers.
Learn more about Paula and
Juanita and how their caregiving advice
and expertise can help your elderly parent or family
member.
Hello
Caregiver. My name is Paula
Tchirkow, MSW, LSW, (licensed social worker)
ACSW(Academy of Certified Social Workers),
and President of Allegheny Geriatric Consultants. I
am an author, a presenter, a mother of two
daughters and a son and the daughter of an
elderly mother. I
truly understand how you feel and know what you
are going through.
 For
the past decade, I have dedicated my life and
career to serving as a professional caregiver
to many families like yours who are facing
the toughest and most difficult challenges
of their life—caring for an aging parent
or a chronically ill family member. Sometimes
my clients don’t have any families or friends
and I am the sole caregiver in their life serving
as both “family,” “friend” and “confidante” as
well as professional caregiver.
Prior to starting my private practice,
I worked as a social services administrator in
the Investment Management and Trust Division
for PNC Bank in Pittsburgh. There I
helped a wide range of elderly clients who had
various physical, psychological, social and environmental
problems as well as chronic and serious illnesses.
Throughout my time at PNC, and even now as the
bank continues to refer numerous clients to my
private practice, officials there have told me
that both my caring nature and the specialized
geriatric skills I have are second to none.
Those specialized skills include the ability
to handle the most challenging clients including
those who are seriously ill or just plain challenging. Whether
I am working with a family caregiver like you,
or directly with a nursing or personal care home,
clients tell me that my expertise and solutions
yield results that include improvement in a parent’s
condition, stabilization of a particular illness
or situation and a more positive sense of self. Nursing
and personal care homes perceive me to be
an ally rather than an adversary. They
feel I have a thorough knowledge of the industry,
experience in the field and are available on
a moment’s
notice should they need me.
Why Should You Hire Us?
-
Elder
law and estate-trusts attorneys,
financial planners and bank trust
departments continually refer
us their elderly clients
who need immediate care; (See
Testimonials)
-
Every
medical, mental, emotional,
environmental, financial
and legal need will be addressed
through the comprehensive
assessment/evaluation programs
and plans we conduct;
(See “Services”)
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You may be
wondering…what prompted
me to venture into the geriatric care field.
 Actually,
it’s an interesting story I’ll
share…first-hand experience, in fact.
Longevity
runs in my family, and I have enjoyed the
pleasure of having my grandparents play a
significant role in my life.
In
fact, three of the four grandparents survived
into their mid to late 90s, and provided
me with a unique wealth of experience and
first-hand knowledge about aging and the
extended family.
For
example, I watched my mother struggle with
the difficulty and stress of long distance
caregiving. Sleepless nights,
constant worry and frequent unanticipated
cross country trips were an all too familiar
part of her life. My interest in, and
experience with the challenges of aging,
led me to concentrate in geriatric studies
in graduate school.
I
wanted to participate in the new area of
geriatric care management, and be able to
provide a source of knowledge and support
to elderly parents and their families. It
has been a privilege to know and work with
many wonderful families over the years.
Credentials
Back
to top
Certification
Back
to top
Award
Back
to top
Memberships
Back to top
In the Media Spotlight
Following are some
of the media that featured Allegheny Geriatric
Consultants over the last decade:
“The
Tipping Point: How Do I Know When My Parent
Needs Advanced Care? Recognizing and Managing
Your Parent's Care Needs,” SeniorMag.com, December
2003
“Caring
for Elderly Parents, and a Business, is Manageable
if Planned For,” Pittsburgh
Business Times, May 9-15,
2003
“Seniors
Past 75 Need Special Advocacy During Hospital
Stays,” The
Pittsburgh Post- Gazette,
February 4, 2003
“Advocates
for the Elderly and 'Eyes and Ears' for
Elder Law Attorneys,” The Pennsylvania
Lawyer, November/December 2002
“A
Caring Matter,” SmartBusiness
Magazine, March 2002
“Elder
Law Practice May Evolve Dramatically
in the Next Decade,” Lawyer's
Journal, April, 2001
“Growing
Old Together,” Financial
Planning Magazine, September
2001
“When
It's Your Turn To Take Care of Your Parents,” Small
Business News, 1999
“The
Role of Professional Geriatric Care Managers,” The
Bulletin, Allegheny County
Medical Society, October 1998
More
than anyone, I truly understand how you
feel and know what you are going through.
I invite you to contact
me.
» » » Juanita
Nealer, LSW, ACSW, CMC
» » » Click
here for Ask
the Expert Page
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