My mom lives in a great assisted living community, but it does not have memory care. She has her own little apartment. She gets all her meals and they help with showers 3 times a week and much more. It is provided through Medicaid. However, she needs more.
Some of the things she needs are only provided by memory care facilities. Medicaid does not pay for memory care in Illinois.
My question is, is it possible to have someone come into the assisted living space and bathe her more, take her to the cafe, and just do the work of a memory care facility?
I just don’t want to move her. She enjoys where she is; I just want to supplement somehow.
To supplement her care without moving her, you do have some options. You could hire an outside caregiver to visit your mom for additional support, such as more frequent bathing or taking her to activities. These services would not be covered by Medicaid, but you would not need to report them to Medicaid either. It would be entirely out of pocket, but it would provide the personalized care you are looking for.
Another idea is to reach out to local volunteer programs through your church or community organizations, such as Girl Scouts as well as talking with the Executive Director of your mom 's facility about volunteer programs in the area. While volunteers may not be able to help with bathing, they can certainly assist with guiding your mom to activities, helping her enjoy meals at the facility’s cafe, or offering companionship.
If your mom’s facility is not too large, it might also help to speak with the Activities Director; he/she could potentially assist the coordination with staff to encourage your mom's participation in activities or find ways to better engage her.
As others have mentioned, memory care provides more intensive services due to the higher needs of its residents, which is why they are in a locked environment. However, with the right supplemental support, you can create a care plan that keeps your mom in the community she enjoys while ensuring she gets the extra help she needs.
Best wishes
By the way more showers are not better for her. As long as she is being cleaned and dried properly when she is changed and between showers. Washing/bathing or showering is removing needed oils from the skin as a person ages the skin becomes drier and the oils help.
You can pay to have a "companion" come in to "visit" 1 or 2 times a week. I doubt that that would effect her Medicaid status.
The facility staff in charge of activities should be encouraging her to participate. Some AL facilities have "ambassadors" other residents that will encourage other residents to participate.
All that said I am one that believes that a person with dementia should be in MC not AL strictly for safety reasons. There is a risk that a person with dementia cold leave a facility and become lost, injured, killed. It is not the responsibility of AL staff to prevent a person from leaving the building. (or to protect them from other residents that may not have the best intentions)
You can ask the facility if they have Volunteers that would do that.
What you need is a companion. Someone who may come in for a few hours a day. And that comes out of your pocket if Mom is on Medicaid. ALs are renting an apartment with some help added in. They provide the activities and the outings but its up to the resident to participate. ALs were not designed for people suffering from Dementia. They are for people who are basically independent who need some type of assistance.
My Mom, with Dementia, was in a small AL. She was kept mostly in the common area where the activity was.
At best, none of these things work well at end of life in these circumstances, nor have good answers other than for the enormously wealthy who can afford 24/7 in home care in shifts. You could get Hospice on board but their two or three baths a week will just be dropped by the ALF and you will end where you are.
I could be wrong. The search is for you to do for your area. When it comes to governmentally subsidized care of our seniors if yours is at all adequate I personally wouldn't make a move. Good luck to you. I am afraid you have reached a stage where only money talks.
As far as showers go, 3 per week is more than enough! You don't want moms skin drying out or to expose her to falling anymore than necessary. The big question to ask yourself is, is mom safe living in her own apartment, with dementia? Can she leave anytime she'd like, get lost and hurt wandering around? Can she use a microwave and start a fire? I had mom in Memory Care Assisted Living not for any reason but safety. I'd have placed her in a SNF with Medicaid if she didn't have funds to private pay.
Best of luck to you.