Julie Groshens is launching an Elder Care Expo in St. Paul, Minn., to make it easier to explore options for aging relatives.

Frustration with patching together care for her aging mother prompted one baby boomer to start a second job bringing together elder-care resources in one venue.

Julie Groshens, 52, of St. Paul, Minn., was bewildered when the elaborate support system she helped set up for her elderly mother failed. Although Groshens has 10 siblings to help as caretakers and a doctor, lawyer and geriatric social worker in the family, her mother broke her hip three times, had to move several times, suffered medical problems and experienced sudden memory loss.

On several occasions Groshens was told that mother needed to be moved immediately – a process that involved extensive research while working full time. “The research is staggering on the productivity loss of employees trying to figure out these issues on their own,” she said.

A final straw came when Groshens and her siblings received a letter from the government telling them their mother was dead, though the woman was still very much alive.

“I said to my brother, who is a geriatric social worker, ‘What do people do who don’t have somebody like you?’”

As a result, Groshens and two partners started Elder Expo Care Expos, LLC, to provide one-stop shopping for people faced with elder-care decisions. It was a natural decision for Groshens, whose primary career is organizing educational and training conferences. Her partners, Stacey Marmolejo and Steve Dahlberg, have experience in planning consumer shows and innovative projects related to aging.

Groshens encourages people in Minnesota to attend the first Elder Care Expo on May 9 and 10 with their aging parents and other family members. “It’s a safe place to start the conversation about these issues that many families have never talked about,” she said.

She has spoken with many boomers who are greatly relieved to learn there is a faster way to get up to speed on elder options. She points out that it just takes one phone call to throw a family into panic over how to deal with an aging parent.

In her case, it was two phone calls that came last July in a single hour, informing her that both her mother and her mother-in-law had broken their hips. Both women are doing fine now, thanks to the efforts of many family members. Her mother, age 89, is in a “fabulous” nursing home and her husband’s mother, 92, lives in an assisted living facility.

But Groshens admits that she’s having trouble planning for her own needs as she ages. “It’s embarrassing,” she said. “I have two children but I don’t have a living will. I haven’t done any advanced directives. As we have been researching content and looking at speakers, I am concerned that I haven’t done any of this myself.”

The first Elder Care Expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on May 9 and 10 in the Education Building at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds at 1265 Snelling Ave. North in St. Paul. It will feature 75 to 100 exhibitors and more than 90 educational sessions on such topics as understanding insurance, emotional training for caregivers, financial and legal issues, home health care choices, choosing the right housing and making Medicare Part D choices. Admission is $8; Tickets may be purchased online or at the door.

For more information, visit the Elder Expo Care Expo 2008 Web site, or call (651) 204-0266. Elder Care Expos also publishes the Choosing Elder Care blog.