saegiruAug 25, 2023

My mother-in-law lives with us and has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. We've been dealing with it for about a year but things are progressively getting worse. What are options for care?

https://lemmy.world/post/3811828

My mother-in-law lives with us and has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. We've been dealing with it for about a year but things are progressively getting worse. What are options for care? - Lemmy.world

She gets social security, and we don’t have a lot of money ourselves and are no longer able to be with her 24/7. We are in Maryland, and are scared of what we can do. Will her medicare do anything? Is it too late for something like long term care insurance? We have no idea where to start. Thanks for any insight.

Show threadklemptorAug 25, 2023
This is a really tough situation and you have my sympathy. You should look into caregiver support programs such as CAPABLE. There are several such programs which aim to connect caregivers with community resources such as adult day care programs, and to teach them new skills to better cope with the behavioral changes that happen with dementia. Is she Medicaid-eligible? Sometimes there are state waiver programs that can leverage Medicaid (in addition to Medicare) to pay for these programs. I think Maryland has such a waiver but I’m not 100% sure. Let me know if you have questions.
Community Aging in Place—Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

CHALLENGE In today’s health care environment, improving health largely falls outside of health care facilities. Home is where health is. People with functional limitations and chronic conditions are four times more likely than the general population to be among the five percent costliest users of health services. And yet, function is rarely addressed in medical visits. SOLUTION […]

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Show threadklemptor
I forgot to mention - CAPABLE is just one example and IIRC it’s more focused on the person with dementia than on caregiver support, so I believe it’s more applicable for people with mild impairment. If your MIL is more than mildly impaired, I would look for programs geared toward a caregiver-patient dyad. These are specifically designed to improve caregivers’ ability to effectively manage the disease and therefore alleviate some of the burden of caregiving (reducing stress and depression).
Aug 25, 2023 at 2:41pmWeb