How ALBA Helps

When the situation is complicated, it helps to see the whole picture.

Aging can bring questions that don't fit neatly into one category. Changes in one area can affect others, and even relatively simple needs can be surprisingly difficult to navigate when you don't know what options or resources exist.

ALBA helps you understand what is happening, what may be available, and what deserves attention now, without assuming the answer before understanding the situation.

Explore Services

Select a category below to explore the services within it.

Assessment, Planning & Decision Support Everyday support at home · Planning ahead · Problem-solving · Important decisions · Solo aging

Early Support & Aging-in-Place Planning: Evaluating everyday needs and identifying practical supports, technology, services, and changes that can make life at home easier, maintain independence, and support social and emotional well-being.
Situational Assessment & Analysis: Evaluating complex circumstances, identifying concerns, recognizing gaps, and determining what needs attention.
Strategic Problem-Solving: Untangling complicated or stalled situations, identifying barriers, and developing realistic approaches to moving forward.
Decision Support: Helping individuals and families evaluate choices, weigh competing priorities, understand tradeoffs, and make informed decisions.
Planning & Prioritization: Developing practical action plans, establishing priorities, clarifying responsibilities, and preparing for anticipated changes.
Solo Aging & Support Network Planning: Helping older adults with limited family or other support anticipate challenges, identify vulnerabilities, build support networks, and plan for future needs.

Advocacy, Communication & Family Support Advocacy · Family meetings · Communication · Caregiver coaching · Dementia · Decision-makers · Appointment support

Individual Advocacy: Addressing concerns, navigating barriers, and working toward resolution with healthcare providers, care organizations, and agencies.
Self-Advocacy Coaching: Building the knowledge, skills, and confidence to communicate needs, exercise rights, ask effective questions, and advocate independently.
Family Meeting Facilitation: Planning, structuring, and guiding productive family discussions about care, responsibilities, concerns, and decisions.
Family Dynamics Consultation: Navigating complicated relationships, conflicting priorities, resistance to assistance, changing family roles, and challenging interpersonal dynamics.
Difficult Conversations & Conflict Navigation: Developing communication strategies for sensitive, emotionally charged, or contentious situations.
Caregiver Coaching & Support: Addressing caregiver challenges, setting boundaries, managing expectations, and adapting to changing responsibilities.
Dementia-Related Behavior & Communication Coaching: Helping families and caregivers understand changes in behavior, recognize possible contributing factors, and develop practical communication and response strategies.
Support for Designated Decision-Makers: Guiding individuals serving as powers of attorney, healthcare representatives, or other designated decision-makers through unfamiliar systems, complex care considerations, and practical responsibilities.
Healthcare Team Communication: Helping clients prepare for and participate in productive discussions with physicians, hospital personnel, care teams, and other professionals.
Appointment & Meeting Support: Serving as a second set of ears during important medical appointments, care conferences, or other meetings; helping clarify information, ask questions, and identify needed follow-up.

Care, Services & Transitions Social connection · Care options · Crisis navigation · Discharge · Coordination · Medicaid · Care quality · End of life

Social Engagement & Connection: Identifying opportunities for meaningful activities, relationships, and community participation, and addressing barriers that may contribute to isolation.
Care Options Consultation: Evaluating whether additional support or care may be needed and considering different options in relation to individual needs, preferences, circumstances, and resources.
Crisis Navigation: Helping individuals and families respond to urgent, non-emergency changes or complicated situations by assessing priorities, identifying available options, and developing a practical course of action.
Hospital Discharge & Care Transitions: Identifying concerns, anticipating obstacles, facilitating communication, and helping develop practical transition plans.
Short-Term Systems Coordination: Coordinating communication, resources, and specific actions among involved parties during defined situations or transitions.
Medicaid & Long-Term Care Navigation: Providing an overview of Washington's long-term care Medicaid programs, basic eligibility considerations, and available pathways, with referrals for specialized planning and application assistance.
Care Quality & Consumer Advocacy: Helping identify and address concerns about care quality, resident rights, provider accountability, and appropriate reporting or resolution pathways.
Serious Illness & End-of-Life Navigation: Supporting difficult decisions, care preference discussions, family communication, and navigation of palliative care, hospice, and related services.
Community Support Planning: Identifying and evaluating combinations of services and resources to address daily living, caregiving, social, and practical needs.

Education, Research & Training Individualized education · Research and analysis · Professional resources · Workshops and training

Individualized Education: Explaining complex aging-related issues and systems in understandable terms, tailored to the client's circumstances and level of knowledge.
Personalized Research & Analysis: Investigating relevant options, evaluating information, comparing practical implications, and translating findings into meaningful guidance.
Professional Resource Consultation: Identifying when specialized expertise is needed and helping clients connect with appropriate professionals and organizations.
Education, Workshops & Training: Developing and delivering tailored educational programs and training for family caregivers, community organizations, and professional groups.

Education and guidance Topics & Education Aging, dementia, caregiving, care options, public benefits, and more. Select to see the full list.

ALBA can provide guidance and education on a wide range of aging-related topics, including:

Aging-related changes, needs, and challenges
Dementia, cognitive changes, communication, and dementia-related behaviors
Personal autonomy, safety, risk, and decision-making
Family caregiving, caregiver stress, roles, and responsibilities
Complex family relationships and caregiving dynamics
Aging in place and available home-based supports
Social engagement, isolation, and community participation
Solo aging, support networks, and future planning
In-home care, home health, assisted living, adult family homes, memory care, and skilled nursing
Medicare, Medicaid, and Washington's long-term care systems
Long-term care costs, funding options, and public benefits
Healthcare systems, professional roles, and care coordination
Hospitalization, rehabilitation, discharge, and care transitions
Consumer rights, care quality, and regulatory oversight
Advance care planning, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives
Palliative care, hospice, and end-of-life considerations
Respite care, community resources, and caregiver support programs
Planning for future care and support needs

Working with ALBA

Consultations & Pricing

Understanding comes first. ALBA offers several ways to engage, from a focused starting point to more sustained navigation when circumstances call for it.

Initial Navigation Consultation

$350

An in-depth intake, completed and reviewed before we meet, gives ALBA time to understand your circumstances, identify questions worth exploring, and prepare thoughtfully for our consultation.

A focused starting point for understanding your situation, identifying priorities, exploring what may be relevant, and determining useful next steps.

What's included

In-depth pre-consultation intake and review
50-minute consultation
Personalized Navigation Report

Follow-up Consultation

$200

For existing clients with new questions, changing circumstances, or something previously discussed to revisit. A focused consultation provides an opportunity to reassess what's happening and determine what may be useful next.

Navigation Engagement

Scope-based

Some situations call for support beyond consultation. A Navigation Engagement allows ALBA to remain involved through a defined period of transition, decision-making, or navigation. Investment is based on the scope and complexity of the work.

Focused support, with a defined scope.

ALBA provides consultation, navigation, advocacy, and coordination around specific concerns, decisions, or periods of transition. Services are tailored to the situation rather than structured as indefinite care management. When ongoing oversight or more comprehensive care management is needed, ALBA can help identify appropriate professional resources.

Professional boundaries: ALBA's services are non-clinical and do not include medical treatment, legal or financial advice, or residential placement. When needs extend beyond ALBA's expertise or service scope, appropriate referrals to qualified professionals or organizations will be made.

Independent by design: ALBA does not accept referral fees or compensation for directing clients toward particular providers, communities, or services.