Mom clearly does better when home-care staff works 5 days a week. She does PT exercises, walks, bathes regularly. I also get to pass off tasks "ask ___ to help with that". This comes out of Mom's retirement account. I would like to save some money to stretch it further by cutting back some home-care hours, but expect Mom will get less activity (I work then come home to a shared house). If we can stretch the money, we can avoid Medicaid longer. If Medicaid pays for some home-care, will it be enough to maintain Mom's stamina? Or will she just start slipping? If so, should we get her into a facility sooner rather than later, where she'll get the support she needs at the price that's available.
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Your Area Agency on Aging will have materials for you regarding finding and evaluating home-health-care workers.
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I take care of my parents in the evening and part of the time during the day. Personally I am trying to preserve my sanity but not bankrupt my parents --- so the work schedule is something I am still tweaking.
We're currently reviewing all expenses and attempting to cut down or eliminate cost. For instance, we have begun to purchase certain groceries in bulk and looking at utility bills. Their water bill had gone up and it turned out there was a leak in the basement.
So that's how we've been trying to make it work so far. I don't know anything about Medicaid paying for home care. What I do know is that my parents have had unpleasant experiences in "rehab" after being in the hospital --- the same place they would go should we get them into assisted living.
You know, rehab was great when Mom and Dad could do a lot for themselves but the more dependent they get, the worse their experience in rehab has been.