I care for my father (100) and my older sister who has PSP, a degenerative brain disease.

Definitely give them a call. Everyone has given as much or more detail than I would have, but I wanted to say I hope you get the help you need. Sounds like your hands are full!

Gracie, my opinion is that you may obtain a physician order for Respite Care. Your dad does not necessarily have to be in Hospice. Respite Care is the right service for your dad.

Gracie,
It sounds like you have your hands full and could use all the help you can get. My mom had PSP. Your Dad's and sister's primary care physician can write orders for Hospice if he/she thinks it is needed or you let him/her know you are willing to accept Hospice Care. In my state Medicare covers Hospice 100 percent. The stigma still exists that Hospice is for those that have only 6 months or less to live. That was not the case for my Mom. She would decline then plateau. They evaluate every 6 months. Aides will come to patients home or care facility 3 times a week to bathe the patients. Registered Nurses come once a week. There is a Hospice doctor that changes meds as needed, etc. There are Social Workers for you to vent to and Chaplains. I have read mixed opinions on this site concerning Hospice. The Hospice I used was a non profit. They were awesome. I had used them for my Step Dad a few years prior. There may be more than one Hospice in your town. If you don't like one change to another. I was very hesitant to get Hospice on board for fear Mom would think she had Cancer, etc, and she would flip out. She never realized they were Hospice. She just thought they were more Caregivers. Very calm, patient, friendly caregivers. Best of Luck to you. Take care of yourself.

Graciegirl my thoughts and prayers are with you. If your father has been diagnosed with alzheimer's disease, you can call hospice. Our mother has Alzheimer's and she is between the fourth and the fifth stage. One of my physician assistant friends and I were talking and when she saw everything that my sister and I were going through, she said we needed to get in touch with hospice. I told her that I thought hospice was only for terminal diseases, she then stated Alzheimer's is a terminal disease and they will help you and your loved one through all this . So get your father diagnosed if he has not been diagnosed, and get in touch with hospice it will be a big relief for you .

Dear Graciegirl, your dad is 100 years old...I guess maybe he IS tired, I would be! I think calling hospice would be good...at this stage of his life (and not many people live to be 100), logically, he does not have much time left...have you spoken to him about how he feels? I give you tons of kudos for caring for him. My mom died when she was 93 of AD and she so wanted to go....In my family, many of the "old" people decided to die...they would tell their loved ones...'I'm going to die now, and within 3-6 months they would. I think they were just ready to go...I will pray for you and your Dad. Blessings, Lindaz.

Call hospice. They will evaluate your father and make a determination if he is eligible for hospice services.
A person does not have to have "6 months" to live. There needs to be a continued decline. A re-certification is done periodically to document the decline. A decline can be anything from eating less, weight loss, sleeping more, needing more help doing things the person was able to do previously.
You do not say if you are all living under the same roof or not...it is also possible that your sister is eligible for hospice as well. If that is the case and they both qualify you will get help for both of them, a CNA that will help with bathing and dressing a few mornings a week, a nurse the check vitals and order medications and a Social Worker that you can talk to and can help you.
And another possible source of help..If your Dad is a Veteran he may qualify for help as well so give the VA a call if he is a veteran.

Perhaps the "death" term was taken too literally, and Michigan might have a clause that stipulates "no expectation of survival" in order to receive hospice care might be a condition which qualifies...Having dementia qualifies under that last statement.

Yes, contact hospice. And no, you don't have to be within six months of death. It is covered by Medicare. My mother is now under hospice care. She is 97 and has very limited mobility and dementia. Because of her condition, she qualified for hospice. Hospice told me at the time I transferred her major care to them that no "death" diagnosis is necessary. Perhaps this varies from state to state, I don't know. My mother lives in Michigan.

First of all, your father is "ill". Sounds like he has clinical depression and the key is sleeping a lot. Wanting to die, not eating are also clues, but that is part of dementia too. Get him to a geriatric psychiatrist and perhaps he can benefit from an anti-depressant. Several different ones may need to be tried because the right med is not one-size-fits-all in depression. Also, you cannot just "call hospice" because he has to be within about 6 mos. of dying, and you need a doctor's order. If he has lived to be 100 yrs. then his body isn't quite ready to quit, so do not quit on him. Once his appetite improves & outlook, he could live to be 101+. My best to him and hope he has many more birthdays!

He says he doesn't get any sleep, where I know that is not true. A few weeks ago, I would catnap during the day, an hour total. And he does have trouble sleeping at night due to urinary problems. The last 4-5 days, he is sleeping around 5-6 hours during the day and still sleeping at night.
Now, today, our caregiver was able to convince him to take a walk outside on the sidewalk and he ate lunch and he has stayed awake today. So, I don't know. Maybe he is just depressed. I'll call his primary doctor tomorrow and see what he says. Thank you for responding to my question. I really appreciate it.

If you contact Hospice for an evaluation they can say, "He doesn't seem to fit our criteria yet," or "He is eligible for our services." Either way, what have you got to lose?

How much total time is he sleeping per day?