Your profile says he wants to come home. With his health problems, I say its not a good idea. Depending on where he is with the Dementia, he may not be able to assign POA. I have done the Caregiving 24/7 thing and, other than my husband, I would not care for even my friend who I love dearly.
If he is in rehab, I would have him evaluated for LTC. If money is a problem, then start a Medicaid application. Dementia only gets worse. He will become incontinent. Are u willing to toilet him. Put up with the paranoia where ur blamed for everything. If he has no family, then u may want to allow the State to have guardianship. For u, this would be very expensive.
For you to be paid, an agreement would need to be written up, by a lawyer would be good if Medicaid gets involved eventually, between u and friend that you would be paid a certain amount a month to care for him. You need to consider SS and Medicare deductions which u will be responsible to pay directly. Your friend would need to be competent to do this. In some states, you maybe able to be paid thru care agencies where they train and hire you. But, you will not make much.
You don't say how old ur. If pre Social Security, I would not risk my future earnings. SS is based on the last 35 yrs. To get the most benefit you need to work. Not fair for u not to be able to pay your bills. If this man has family, they need to step up and help him.
Loriesteff, if you do choose to go down the caregiver journey, please make sure your friend has all his legal ducks in a row. He will need to assign someone Power of Attorney (medical and financial), have a Healthcare Directive, will (if he has any possessions), HIPAA release forms, etc. If you do not have his durable PoA, this may prove to be an obstacle in your caring for him in the future.
Also, aging in-home seems all fine now until (and if) he develops dementia or a profound sickness -- then it is another thing entirely. Please don't make any promises to your friend to "never put him in a NH" as people who request this have no idea what they are asking of the caregiver. Go into this with your eyes wide open and learn from the thousands of people who have posted their real-life experiences as single caregivers. Blessings!
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Your profile says he wants to come home. With his health problems, I say its not a good idea. Depending on where he is with the Dementia, he may not be able to assign POA. I have done the Caregiving 24/7 thing and, other than my husband, I would not care for even my friend who I love dearly.
If he is in rehab, I would have him evaluated for LTC. If money is a problem, then start a Medicaid application. Dementia only gets worse. He will become incontinent. Are u willing to toilet him. Put up with the paranoia where ur blamed for everything. If he has no family, then u may want to allow the State to have guardianship. For u, this would be very expensive.
For you to be paid, an agreement would need to be written up, by a lawyer would be good if Medicaid gets involved eventually, between u and friend that you would be paid a certain amount a month to care for him. You need to consider SS and Medicare deductions which u will be responsible to pay directly. Your friend would need to be competent to do this. In some states, you maybe able to be paid thru care agencies where they train and hire you. But, you will not make much.
You don't say how old ur. If pre Social Security, I would not risk my future earnings. SS is based on the last 35 yrs. To get the most benefit you need to work. Not fair for u not to be able to pay your bills. If this man has family, they need to step up and help him.
Also, aging in-home seems all fine now until (and if) he develops dementia or a profound sickness -- then it is another thing entirely. Please don't make any promises to your friend to "never put him in a NH" as people who request this have no idea what they are asking of the caregiver. Go into this with your eyes wide open and learn from the thousands of people who have posted their real-life experiences as single caregivers. Blessings!
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