Libby Handler is the founder and director of Boomer Options, and offers over 15 years experience in senior care. She is a Certified Professional Consultant on Aging (CPCA), specializing in independent living for older adults.
A Certified Professional Consultant on Aging (CPCA) is a professional dedicated to providing the highest quality of service possible to their Boomer and Senior Clients. CPCAs have completed a rigorous course of instruction and passed a comprehensive exam demonstrating that they understand the processes of aging, and how these processes influence the health, social and financial considerations of mature Canadians.
As a CPCA, Libby has signed a Code of Professional Responsibility and has agreed to abide by that Code, placing her clients’ best interests in the forefront at all times. These commitments are monitored by an independent Board of Standards, dedicated to preserving the integrity of the CPCA designation.
- Libby is the author of several magazine articles relating to senior issues. She is a regular presenter of continuing education credit workshops on aging and age-related issues for the Mississauga Real Estate Board.
- As a member in good standing of Age-Friendly Business® Academy, Older Adult Centres Association of Ontario, and the Canadian Association of Women Executives and Entrepreneurs, Libby is active in the community and up-to-date on issues facing seniors and their families.
- She relies on a core support group comprised of a trauma physician, 2 ER nurses, a geriatric nurse and a social worker. In addition, Libby contributes as one of a 9-member informal advisory group comprised of ethical, like-minded established professionals serving various aspects of the senior market, including financial and estate planning, legal matters, assisted living facilities, transportation services, funeral arrangements & related services, physio/recreational therapy, and in-home nursing services.
Libby is also trained, accredited and experienced in the following areas:
- Certified Relocation and Transition Specialist (CRTS)
- Senior Move Manager (cSMM)
- Professional Organizer (IPO)
- Certified Staging Professional (CSP)
Before changing her career focus, Libby had a successful marketing career spanning over 30 years.
On a personal level, Libby is herself an active, involved senior, the proud grandmother of 10 grandchildren ranging in age from 23 years to 1 year, and has earned every one of her gray hairs and wrinkles! She has learned to plan, organize and multi-task by raising 4 sons as a single parent while working full-time and being active in community and professional associations. After her sons grew up, Libby became the primary caregiver for various aging and dying relatives over a period encompassing 15 years: a father-in-law with cancer and cancer-related dementia, a mother-in law with a chronic and debilitating heart condition, and her mother, who managed to battle through 3 different cancers during the last 10 years of her life.
This personal, hard-earned, hands-on training as the primary caregiver for several chronically needy senior family members, provided the basic groundwork for Libby’s interest in developing competent, professional and ethical supportive resources for families who found themselves in her position. Through her personal experience, as well as through her experience in working with senior friends and clients who were trying to cope with the changes in their lives as they aged, Libby has become an expert in the delicate art of balancing a senior’s need for maintaining independence, control and dignity, with the necessity of assistance or intervention from the family.
It also taught her how unexpectedly and dramatically circumstances in life can change, which has made her a very strong advocate of the need for planning and preparing for the future, both for herself and for her family.
Libby is proud to have an eclectic, interesting and very supportive circle of friends, whom she often uses as a personal resource when exploring aging and age-related issues. She enjoys travelling (especially to play gramma), reading and gardening… and last but certainly not least, she really enjoys all the attending chaos when her family visits for Christmas.
For more information, call (416) 252-9010 or e-mail to info@boomeroptions.ca
As accredited providers of services to seniors and their families, we proudly support our Client Bill of Rights.
