Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have family members who have been living independently even though they are developmentally disabled. That now has to change. My family is scattered everywhere and it will come to rest on my shoulders. To what degree, I do not know yet.
It's my brother and his wife and they have been living in CA and been collecting SSI and have been covered under Medical. He is 60 and his wife is 64. My brother is fairly high functioning. He can do basic self-care, read and write, add and subtract at about a 2nd to 3rd grade level. He has driver's license (and only one ticket in his life). His wife is much lower functioning. She can do basic self-care and understand very simple things. No way can she do something as complex as driving. It's obvious when you meet them that there is something definitely amiss. Both have very poor hygiene and a plethora of other issues.
My brother is temperamental. He gets upset when feels like "everyone's trying to tell him what to do" and will be very passive-aggressive and do things like turn his phone off so we cannot call him. (To be fair, one of my other brother's is annoyingly bossy.) He'll usually communicate with me, though. He desperately wants friends; he's never had a best friend in his life except when he went to Easter Seals camp one summer. He was mercilessly picked on by bullies when he was young. There have always been people around him who he thinks are his friends. In reality, they exploit him and are wily enough to know not to cross the line and get arrested doing it. As a result, we cannot give them the money they need to live beyond barely existing. It's been awful, but my brother won't listen to reason. They were living in a dilapidated travel trailer and paying low space rent and it seemed to be working for them, but we had to replace the trailer for them and did (well, the bossy brother did )They promised us that they would not let anyone else live there with them, but he lied and let an ex-convict, child molesting, sex-offender live there and sleep on their couch.
Recently, my brother's wife (let's call her "Suzy") fell and fractured a vertebra. She ended up in the hospital and is now at a rehab facility for a couple of weeks. When she is discharged, her discharge plan states that she is to go into an assisted living facility and have PT for I have no idea how long. I have been told that Medical will not pay for assisted living and that it must be paid for upfront.
The bossy brother is fairly well off and has taken on the lions share of expenses for the two relative to the rest of us. I am trying to come up with a plan were as many of us as possible absorb the expense of one month's cost of the facility. The liaison that I've been working with from the rehab hospital is helping me long distance locate a facility and has found a couple that, I think, are quite reasonable, however expensive, nonetheless. If my family doesn't/can't help with the finances, pretty much my option is to have her transported from California to Idaho, where I'm at. She won't get the PT, though, until I can get her on Medicare.
Ultimately, I will have to get some sort of legal guardianship over them. Some really bad/difficult situations have occurred because of their poor decision making skills and the parasites around them. I can't let on what I'm contemplating, because if the parasites get wind of it, they will do their best to get my brother to resist.
They need them to live close to me. I need to move their benefits with SSI to my state and get them on Medicare and it needs to be done absolutely seamlessly. This is my short-term problem and what I need help with the most.
I sent, to Suzy's caseworker at the rehab facility, some paperwork for her to sign so that I can discuss their benefits with Social Security and I'm going to the local office tomorrow.
If you bothered to read through this, a thousand blessings to you. If you can point me in the right direction for the part in Orange, another thousand.
(I've already contacted the local Health and Welfare services along several other agencies)
That's a tough situation, and its unfortunate there are so many abusive folks in the world looking to take advantage of the vulnerable.
It seems like getting DPOA (durable power of attorney) might be the first step, if your brother is willing to move, this would allow you to make pretty much all the arrangements.
Guardianship will be a bit tougher, especially if your brother/SIL are against it - but I agree in their situation it seems that someone has to be looking out for them, but I'd start with DPOA if you could - if they agree its very quick and it should allow you to make SS/medical sign-up agreements on their behalf.
I'm not sure which Medical they're on (are they on Medicaid along with the SSI? I know that's a possibility) I'm not sure with disabilities if they can get on Medicare earlier (I know you said you want them on medicare?) than 65. Also - is medicare tied to having worked?? Sorry, I'm unsure of that, I know that the premium is paid out of SS (not SSI), and you only get SS if you had enough employment credits to do so. So if your brother/SIL never had work histories, I'm not sure if that would affect eligibility for medicare.
As far as discharging to an ALF - is there a reason that is required rather than a discharge to home with outpatient PT? Since ALFs are generally not extensively medical, but simply have moderate help on-site, it seems that they are just wanting her to get follow up PT -- which she should be able to get as an outpatient.
Nursing Homes/Rehab Facilities/Hospitals all have their ideas of what is necessary -- often times they don't understand a family's situation and they will push for what they think regardless of the financial repercussions.
(snip) As far as discharging to an ALF - is there a reason that is required rather than a discharge to home with outpatient PT? Since ALFs are generally not extensively medical, but simply have moderate help on-site, it seems that they are just wanting her to get follow up PT -- which she should be able to get as an outpatient.
Nursing Homes/Rehab Facilities/Hospitals all have their ideas of what is necessary -- often times they don't understand a family's situation and they will push for what they think regardless of the financial repercussions.
Someone needs to talk with the hospital social worker/ out patient case manager/ surgery follow up manager / whatever they are called in that area/ to find out why they want her to go to a AFL. It could be as simple as she said that she didn't drive and they realized that she was cognitively delayed and they did not know that she had a spouse who was capable of remembering the appointments and driving her there.
Or it could be something different, like she needs a lot more follow-up care than she told everyone (it isn't just follow-up PT, but much more involved), or a social worker/follow-up care provider visited her trailer and did not feel that it was safe or maybe something totally different.
So, short term, someone needs to investigate why they want her to go into an ALF rather than to home.
That's a tough situation, and its unfortunate there are so many abusive folks in the world looking to take advantage of the vulnerable.
It seems like getting DPOA (durable power of attorney) might be the first step, if your brother is willing to move, this would allow you to make pretty much all the arrangements.
I'll look into that
Quote:
Guardianship will be a bit tougher, especially if your brother/SIL are against it - but I agree in their situation it seems that someone has to be looking out for them, but I'd start with DPOA if you could - if they agree its very quick and it should allow you to make SS/medical sign-up agreements on their behalf.
One of the agencies that I spoke with yesterday told me that a guardianship is relatively easy to get here in Idaho without an attorney. It's a matter of filling out a form and going before a judge. I suppose they could try to fight it, but all a judge would have to do is take one look at them and would know they needed serious assistance.
Quote:
I'm not sure which Medical they're on (are they on Medicaid along with the SSI? I know that's a possibility) I'm not sure with disabilities if they can get on Medicare earlier (I know you said you want them on medicare?) than 65. Also - is medicare tied to having worked?? Sorry, I'm unsure of that, I know that the premium is paid out of SS (not SSI), and you only get SS if you had enough employment credits to do so. So if your brother/SIL never had work histories, I'm not sure if that would affect eligibility for medicare.
They had some minor work histories. My brother had a paper route and worked at a rehab facility earning piece-rate. That's where he met Suzy. She couldn't work because she was so accident prone.
My understanding is that they are on Medical only. The liaison and the case worker was miffed that someone along had never got them on Medicare - not at me; a doctor or a nurse or someone. I told them that someone could have made have made that suggestion, but Timmy and Suzy didn't understand. I honestly didn't know.
According to the liaison, anyone who has been disabled for two or more years, qualifies for medicare.
I didn't know how they were getting assistance either. With their very short work histories, I wouldn't have thought that they could get anything.
Quote:
As far as discharging to an ALF - is there a reason that is required rather than a discharge to home with outpatient PT? Since ALFs are generally not extensively medical, but simply have moderate help on-site, it seems that they are just wanting her to get follow up PT -- which she should be able to get as an outpatient.
She will be in a torso brace and wheelchair bound. My brother won't take care of her properly at home and I cannot imagine a PT worker performing PT with her at her "abode".
Quote:
Nursing Homes/Rehab Facilities/Hospitals all have their ideas of what is necessary -- often times they don't understand a family's situation and they will push for what they think regardless of the financial repercussions.
Yes. I've already encountered that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626
Someone needs to talk with the hospital social worker/ out patient case manager/ surgery follow up manager / whatever they are called in that area/ to find out why they want her to go to a AFL. It could be as simple as she said that she didn't drive and they realized that she was cognitively delayed and they did not know that she had a spouse who was capable of remembering the appointments and driving her there.
Or it could be something different, like she needs a lot more follow-up care than she told everyone (it isn't just follow-up PT, but much more involved), or a social worker/follow-up care provider visited her trailer and did not feel that it was safe or maybe something totally different.
So, short term, someone needs to investigate why they want her to go into an ALF rather than to home.
Good luck.
Yes. It is more involve and I have not given all the details as my post was long enough already. She needs to be cared for and my brother cannot/won't do it.
The good, at least I think it is, is that once I get them up here and established, there are services for them. I was kind of shocked because Idaho has a reputation of being independent and libertarian spirited - not to be interpreted as me thinking it's a bad thing, but I had no idea how much would be available.
I didn't follow all this and know nothing about public assistance but WHY would someone get discharged from the hospital to an ALF for PT for a recently acute injury?
Why aren't they discharging her to a SKILLED NURSING FACILITY that does that?
I don't see why it's any different than someone who had a stroke (like my mother) who was supposed to go to a SNF for rehab to see if she could recover the use of her body especially her swallowing function.
At least that would "buy you" a month's time.
We have one ALF here with PT but it's for generic needs of people with static issues not for someone getting discharged from a hospital who needs care UNLESS the patient is PAYING for the PT to go to the ALF - another matter entirely.
I didn't follow all this and know nothing about public assistance but WHY would someone get discharged from the hospital to an ALF for PT for a recently acute injury?
Why aren't they discharging her to a SKILLED NURSING FACILITY that does that?
I don't see why it's any different than someone who had a stroke (like my mother) who was supposed to go to a SNF for rehab to see if she could recover the use of her body especially her swallowing function.
At least that would "buy you" a month's time.
I didn't know this was an option. I will definitely ask about that. I'm a babe in the woods here, which is why I'm here.
Quote:
We have one ALF here with PT but it's for generic needs of people with static issues not for someone getting discharged from a hospital who needs care UNLESS the patient is PAYING for the PT to go to the ALF - another matter entirely.
Be back later; moving to Idaho
Well, I'm just starting on my journey. I'll let you know as things unfold how difficult it actually is.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
)They promised us that they would not let anyone else live there with them, but he lied and let an ex-convict, child molesting, sex-offender live there and sleep on their couch.
