It's a depressing topic....I always think about all the videos I've seen of poor, old, frail seniors getting hit and slapped around by a caregiver. Sadly it happens too many times. I'm glad I was able to care for my husband and he got to die at home. I expect to die here (suddenly) Or at my daughter's house....no nursing home for me.
I have an update about my friend Evelyn (Joyce Mcgregor on here) who has now been in the nursing home since February. Her son seldom even comes to see her anymore, and the staff at the nursing home are not doing their job of taking care of patients. Even though she is diabetic, they serve sweet tea to everyone, which means she can only have water to drink. The other night, she posted on Facebook (ejmcgregor) that her supper was a fried bologna sandwich, on white bread with no mayo or mustard, just the dry sandwich, plus some bagged salad greens, and a strudel dessert, which she can't eat either. They do not bring her meds on time, and it is sometimes hours later before she gets the meds that she needs. Now, to make everything even worse, it appears that Medicaid is no longer going to cover the cost of keeping her there, since she has recovered, and she has no money left and no place to go. Her family seems to have dumped her there and then forgotten about her. I am beyond distressed about this whole thing ! Robin said that we can take her pickup and go to Memphis after Evelyn, but we can't bring very much back with us in the back of the pickup, it is a small one. At least she can have Sadie (her beloved little dog) back again. Her family gave Sadie away, but I would hope that the people who took her would give her back to Evelyn. If not, she can certainly have her choice of Tootsie or Twiggy. Although it is not the same as having her Sadie back, either one of them would love to be her only dog, and not have to share people. Even if we bring her back, I do not know how she is going to find an apartment to live in because she has given all of her SS pension to the nursing home. We have all of the extra rooms here full (one with exercise equipment, and the other as a storage room/pantry), and nowhere for her to sleep, and only an air bed, which would not work for her anyway. I am going to see what I can find, and hopefully close to us so that we can watch over her, and see if they can work with her on the rent for a month until she can get stabilized again.
Is where she lived before not available? Also, she still gets a monthly pension...right? I'm not understanding that she gave it all to the home?? Is she well enough to live by herself?
She gets SS; but the nursing home is expensive, and they take her whole SS check, plus Medicaid picks up the balance. If the Medicaid people decide she does not need a nursing home, then they stop paying. She was at her son's house before; but his wife just got breast cancer, and she is undergoing chemo, and they said they are unable to take care of her at their house now. I talked with the lady who runs the apartments across the street. She said they don't have any right now, but she gave me a name of someone she knows who does have one, so I will check that out this afternoon, and talk with Evelyn about it. It is not right here; but it is at least close, and would be affordable and a place she could start to rebuild her life at. I think that if she can move before they take her next month's check, then she should have some money to pay rent here if we can get her here.
So hope she gets that place, this will play on my mind tonight, so please give an update when you can
I'm sitting here trying to think of something to get her a home. I don't know her personally but know of her, mainly from mentions from Yvonne and also she was/is a member on here. A lovely woman from what I've read, so it is sad to hear what's happening to her.... It's all so frustrating because I don't know details or the law on any of this...can medicaid just stop? Do they throw you on the street?? What happens?
Medicaid helps low income people with medical expenses. They pay for my heart meds; but when the doctor prescribed Eloquis for me as a blood thinner instead of Xarelto, they would not cover the Eloquis for some reason. My doctor was trying to put me on one that was better for my kidneys since I have kidney failure from the meds (but I have to have the blood thinner so I do not have another blood clot in my lungs). He got them to cover Savaysa, which costs even more than the Eloquis, but for some reason it is covered by Medicaid, and is also better for my kidneys. I only pay a co-pay and Medicaid pays the rest each month. This is probably how it works for the nursing home, too. I think that medicaid covered the nursing home at first because she had been in the hospital and needed to still be under medical care, so they put her in the nursing home. Medicare would have covered the hospital; but not the nursing home. Now that she is doing better again, they will not pay to keep her there; so she has to find another place to live. In the meantime, the nursing home also used her pension to pay part of the cost of the nursing home, leaving her with no money to move anywhere else. And yes, @Chrissy Cross , that is my friend. I thought that some of the old-timers here who remember Evelyn/Joyce might want to add her as a friend and show her that people do care about her. I am sure she is feeling depressed about all of this right now.
I do know what Medicaid is just didn't know they could just stop paying but I guess if she's better than they can. I thought though that they can't just throw someone out without a place for them to go... Add her as a friend where? Here? FB? She probably doesn't know me...
Okay, things are falling into place, I think. Today, I went and looked at an apartment for Evelyn. It is a small studio; but only $435 including all utilities paid. It has free wifi, and is on the ground floor, so no steps for her to have to climb. If her kids will all help her out with financing to get into the apartment, it will be cheap enough for her to pay for after that. If is less than a mile from where we live; so I can easily get her to take her grocery shopping and stuff like that, plus she can use the handi-ride if I am not available. Robin and I will go and get her this weekend. I am going to try and shuffle stuff in the exercise room and Robin has one of those airbeds that we can borrow, and she said that if that won't work, as a last resort, Evelyn can stay with her; so one way or another, we will have a place for Evelyn to stay until we can get the apartment business settled. If the landlord will pro-rate the rent for this month, then she might be able to move in right away, providing her family will all chip in and help her with the first month's rent. We are going to leave Friday afternoon and stay overnight since it is a good 4-hour drive each way. This way, we don't have to drive the whole trip in one day. So.....road trip coming up ! !
@Chrissy Cross " ....I don't think Frank is religious so didn't think that's where he wanted his post to go." I am not particularly religious, true enough, but OTOH, I also don't particularly think about, or care much about, the direction one of my OPs goes. Frank
I don't care either and I had to go back and reread why I said what I did in FEBRUARY...next time I won't mention you @Frank Sanoica.