A Pennsylvania-based senior support company has opened a branch in Manhasset, offering services to senior and special needs communities on the North Shore and throughout Long Island.
IKOR, which will operate at 1615 Northern Blvd., provides life management services and guardianship for clients to help manage their medical, financial and general needs.
Dan Goldberg, a Roslyn resident for 26 years, will run the new branch, using his experience as a certified senior adviser and 30 years as a financial analyst and trader to help area communities, including the Floral Park residential cooperative North Shore Towers.
“I’m excited to bring IKOR’s services to Long Island,” Goldberg said. “Throughout my career, I’ve enjoyed helping clients strengthen their current positions and plan for more secure financial futures. IKOR does this on a much broader platform, offering peace of mind to those needing care, their families and their appointed legal and fiduciary advisers in knowing that their personal well-being and dignity, their quality of life and their assets are being properly tended to not only during life’s moments of vulnerability but over the entire course of their lives.”
Goldberg said that IKOR offers a unique service, combining all aspects of client needs into one resource, including things like routine bill-paying and checking the safety of rugs in a client’s residence.
He said in simplistic terms, using IKOR is like going to straight to a quarterback who can manage the whole football team, instead of dealing with each position for their contribution.
Companies exist that do a piece of what Goldberg does, he said, but IKOR brings life management services to one place.
“What we like to tell people is we can help with as much as you need or as little as you need, whether its medication management, financial assistance, paying bills, what have you,” Goldberg said.
To begin care, clients are paired up with a registered nurse advocate, who performs a needs assessment, tailoring a specific care plan based on the client’s situation, according to the IKOR website.
After needs are determined, advocates create a “life map,” which outlines short-term and long-term solutions. Services recommended by the advocates are then coordinated, and the client begins a schedule of routine monitoring, which adapts as a client’s situation changes.
Goldberg was drawn to work with the company after his own experiences, seeing the challenges his parents and others faced with the health-care system, and took the opportunity as a career change, he said.
“It’s a wonderful feeling when you can help somebody, so the psychic benefits outweigh just about anything,” Goldberg said. “If I can help somebody, I’m more than happy to.”
IKOR’s care management program provides on-call nurses to attend to patient care needs around the clock.
In addition to health-care needs for seniors, the nurses can address environmental and psychological crises.
“They’re on call. Essentially we don’t close,” Goldberg said. “There are no business hours because emergencies happen all the time. Hopefully no emergencies happen, but we are ready and able.”
Goldberg said the nurses on staff typically have 10 or more years of experience, many with a background in the emergency room and intensive care, and are given additional training for IKOR’s specific type of care.
The company’s caregivers can also issue power of attorney authorizations and handle regular financial transactions
IKOR troubleshoots problems for the future, Goldberg said, something potential clients and their loved ones don’t always prepare for.
“I think what you find with everybody is that people are procrastinators, and we don’t like to think ahead or plan,” he said. “The tendency for everyone is that they unfortunately wait until a crisis occurs, and then they’re forced to be reactive and not proactive.”
The new IKOR branch will serve North Shore Towers, a 1,800-residence complex in Floral Park.
The complex is made up of a primarily senior population, but doesn’t offer a tailored system of life management services, Goldberg said.
“It’s a wonderful place, but there are no services there,” he said. “If you live there and you need services, you basically have to procure them yourself.”
As a longtime Long Island resident, Goldberg said New Yorkers always expect the best, and he wants seniors and people with special needs in the area to have the level of care he would want for his family.
Goldberg recalled being able to help a friend in Florida arrange hospice care for an ailing parent, and had a feeling of “nirvana” when he was able to provide aid.
“It’s funny, you grow up hearing time and time again, it’s better to give than to receive, and I think you slowly come to that realization as you become older,” he said.
