Trips to the doctors

If your mom is essentially home-bound, perhaps a better way to go is to find a physician or nurse practitioner who does home visits. Medicare pays for this. often, the treatment plan changes once the health provider sees how the person is functioning in their home. They tend to order fewer tests, drugs, etc., but the patient satisfaction with care actually goes up!

naheaton, I hope that you know how lucky you are! My grandmother and mother, core city dwellers, both used city buses as long as they were able to get up the stairs. Gramma stopped when they made it free for seniors -- she didn't want charity (sigh) and Ma can no longer manage that on her own.

None of us kids have the option of public transportation -- we are suburban or semi-rural.

Absolutely, if public transport meets your parents' needs, encourage them to use it! It is too bad it is such a small fraction of us who have that option.

My mother-in-law used to travel every single day to the adult foster home where her husband was via public transportation. They have 'lift' buses that will take disabled people to and from anywhere they need to go. She used to have a regularly scheduled pickup and delivery time. It's through our public transit TriMet here in Oregon. She used to ride free because her husband retired as a driver/supervisor for TriMet, but it doesn't cost that much.

I suggest that you call Social Services in the county where Mom lives. Explain the situation. They can direct you to all kinds of resources available to Mom.

If mom is classified at disabled, then there should be a service in the county you live in. If not, private transport usually runs about $100 round trip. Hope this helps a little.