Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a Professional Geriatric Care Manager?
A: A Professional Geriatric Care Manager (PGCM) is an expert, such as a social worker, counselor, gerontologist or nurse, who specializes in assisting older people and their families to attain the highest quality of life given their circumstances.

Q: Who uses a PGCM?
A: PGCMs provide services that assist individuals and families. Businesses and professionals in the legal, health, and financial arenas, utilize PGCMs to ensure that their clients understand their options, have their needs met, and they receive quality care.

Q: How can PGCMs assist family caregivers?
A: PGCMs assist families and caregivers in numerous ways. They conduct care-planning assessments to identify problems and to provide solutions; screen, arrange, and monitor in-home help or other services; provide short- or long-term assistance for caregivers living near or far away; review financial, legal, or medical issues and offer referrals to geriatric specialists; provide crisis intervention; act as a liaison to families at a distance, overseeing care, and quickly alerting families to problems; assist with moving an older person to or from a retirement complex, assisted care home, or nursing home; provide consumer education and advocacy; offer counseling and support. Some PGCMs also provide family or individual therapy, finance management, conservatorship or guardianship assistance, and/or care giving services.

Q: Do PGCMs also assist other populations?
A: Most care management practices focus on older adults, though many have the capability and knowledge to serve others with chronic conditions.

Q: Are PGCMs licensed professionals?
A: Many Professional Geriatric Care Managers are licensed in their individual specialties as required by state laws; i.e. nursing, social work, psychology, etc. In 2006, NAPGCM members voted to approve a new requirement that ALL members must hold at least one of four approved care management certifications. All current and renewing Care Manager Members must hold one of these certifications as of Jan. 1, 2010. All new NAPGCM applicants for Care Manager membership must be certified beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

Q: Why certification?
A: Certification ensures a minimum level of professional quality.

Q: What are the specific certifications?
A: Currently there are four accepted certifications: Care Manager Certified (CMC), offered by the National Academy of Certified Care Managers (NACCM); Certified Case Manager (CCM), offered by the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC), and Certified Social Worker Case Manager (C-SWCM) and Certified Advanced Social Worker in Case Management (C-ASWCM), offered by the National Association of Social Workers.

Q: What is the difference between earning a certification in care management and certification?
A: To become certified in one of the four NAPGCM approved certifications, a care manager must qualify based on education, supervision, work experience, written exam, and ongoing continuing education requirements to maintain certification. A certificate in care management is an educational program designed to provide an overview of the care management profession and industry and does not meet all the requirements to become certified.