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alternatives first.
Home
health care is often the preferred option. Medicaid pays
for long-term home health care under many circumstances, although
hospital social workers may tell you otherwise. If you meet the
requirements, you still may have to fight to get full coverage and
pay for some care in the meantime.
Assisted
living generally offers more independence than nursing
homes and can be good alternatives if home is not safe or is socially
isolated. In New York, assisted living is hard to find unless you
can pay privately.
Hospice,
paid for by Medicare, covers care for terminally ill patients at
home and, often, in nursing homes. Although many doctors refer to
hospice only in the last days of life, the program is designed to
offer up to six months of care, which can be extended if the patient
qualifies.
Take time.
Think about discharge, if possible, at the start of a hospital stay.
If a nursing home is likely, patients and their families can choose
five and hospital discharge planners must try first to place in
one of the five. Time pressure is extreme; you may have only a day
to name your choices.
Choose
carefully.
For information about choosing a nursing home, refer to the link
above.
Expect
to continue an active care-giving role after the move.
For information for family caregivers of a nursing home resident,
refer to the link above.
Do
financial planning early; there are few options after placement.
If you are concerned about protecting assets before applying for
Medicaid, the earlier you connect with a lawyer the better. However,
it is still worth getting legal advice even a few days before placement.
For help locating a Elder Law Attorney, go to www.naela.org.
Don’t feel guilty.
It is important that you recognize when it is no longer safe to
keep someone at home, when needed medical treatment is not available
or when a caregiver is overwhelmed. Too often, a move to a nursing
home is hasty, lonely and frightening because a familiar caregiver,
who could have eased the transition, failed to face facts.
To read in “In My family We Care For Our Own,” click
here.
Take care of yourself.
Find out about support groups if you need one. To obtain a list,
click here.
©2003FRIA
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