The Care Girl Podcast
The Care Girl Podcast
Decoding Complexities of Alzheimer's Care
Navigating the maze of memory care for a loved one suffering from Alzheimer's can seem like an uphill battle. But it doesn't have to be. We promise you a journey of enlightenment as we dissect the crucial differences between memory care and nursing home care, with a special emphasis on the challenges of choosing between them. We'll delve into the complexities of long-term care policies and why it's vital to consider these policies prior to retirement. We'll also break down the potential costs of care and provide a local perspective on these options.
In the second part of our conversation, we'll bring the spotlight on the often overlooked but critical elements of Alzheimer's care - proper medication management and home safety. Our friend, a seasoned veteran in senior living and memory care, joins us to share her wisdom on these aspects. We also take a deeper look into the role of home insurance, the risk of potential accidents, and how you can adjust care and medication to keep these risks at bay. With our combined expertise, we aim to arm you with an in-depth understanding of these facets of Alzheimer's care and ensure that you are well-equipped to make informed decisions.
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Okay, what did you say is going on with them?
Speaker 2:We had to call the police once and you know they told us to document everything and that's the first start that he's fighting and things like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, um, so he has an official diagnosis for um Alzheimer's. Okay so, um, where? Where's? What's the location?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And what so? Are they looking for memory care or or someone to come into the home for him? Okay, so when you say nursing home, nursing home is is for when they actually Need like total care, because nursing home doesn't do like memory care, because can't. Can he not do things on his own right now?
Speaker 2:No, he can't, cannot. He can pretty much, but he doesn't remember to do things like bathing, putting on the Boy she bought, the pants on them, layering his clothes. About the only thing he can do is just see themselves and more of the food.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, um, what? What is the current budget for? For a home, I would say, because I know Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:They don't have a budget. She he does have. They just have the small picture that they get from from the school because they used to work for when that County school system and so security.
Speaker 1:Okay, what, and so what would that be? Do you know a referee? With what would that be?
Speaker 2:For him. I'm probably about 1700 from like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, because so do they have Medicaid as well, or Medicare?
Speaker 2:We just we. They're on Medicare yet and we just apply for Medicaid. It's just me see, the problem that I'm having with her Is that you know they've been married over 50 years and so they celebrated 51 years and he's a. He was a very sweet man. They're wonderful, loving husband, and so she's not number one. She didn't know that they can give violent with all timers and, and she thought she's gonna be able to take care of him at home. But he's doing a lot of threatening now, don't touch me. I think he's not recognizing that she's his wife. He's telling her he's gonna kill her. She's never experienced that before with him, and so we're trying to find a nursing home for the man, because he needs that help.
Speaker 1:Oh, I do nothing. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:He can't, he doesn't remember. For instance, he used the bathroom in different places and Then she would try to give him to Change his clothes or get out of his clothes. Instead of doing that, he'll layer, put on a new, clean pair of clothes on top of what the old ones.
Speaker 1:Oh, Wow, okay. So I I'm trying to understand because I it's for him. He sounds like he needs memory care versus a nursing home. A nursing home is really not going to be set in a way for him to to get that, that memory care. But what I need, what I need to do is get I'm going to see if my friend Cassandra is available real quick to, because she she's Um, she does a lot of senior living and memory care. So let me, let me see if I can get her on one sick one second. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Can you hear me? Okay, can you hear me. Yeah, okay, I would be sick my airpods in, sir, oh, um, do you have a second to chat with a lady on the other end who, um, he has a potential memory care, but I'm trying to get the Specific, because I keep saying nursing home, but I don't think that he's fit for a nursing home.
Speaker 3:So Um, I mean, as a squad I'm waiting for her to come back and blow dry me out. But, um, okay, let's see she can get on the phone real quick and if I have to hang up on, call you guys back.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, okay, I'm finna. I'm finna merger. Can I merge her right now? You want to pop it? Yeah, yeah, okay, yes, I have Cassandra on on the line. Oh, tell me your name again. I didn't write it down.
Speaker 2:Okay, my name is Tonya.
Speaker 1:Tonya okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Tell me a little bit about, yes, tell me a little bit about what you're looking for and, um, let's see if I can help point us in the right direction.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, we were looking for a nursing home. That except, uh, uh, all time the stations. That's Liles right now.
Speaker 3:Okay, let me, let me. Let me, let me talk to you right there one second. Um he these nursing here the cuss of the Alzheimer's or the cuss he has. Okay, all right, I feel you're saying they don't do that, but he's going.
Speaker 2:Yes, the reason why I say it like that is because I don't want any like. A lot of times you have more women than men, uh, helping with all kinds of patients, and I don't want anyone to think that he is okay, that he doesn't hit our all of a sudden, something that happened and he's last out in the day. Say, why didn't you say he he fights, though? Why did you say that he was pilot? It's, it's um, it's, it's kind of like like when we had to call the police, like she said whatever you do when you talk to people, just make sure you mention that he does last out, okay.
Speaker 3:I understood. Um, let me. I just want to say this for the fit, because I want to hear your story and I want to be able to help you and I think I can point in the right direction. But, in all transparency, I'm not just going on right now. So she comes back with the blue dryer. I'm going to hang up on y'all but call you back. But let me just say this really quickly too Combattants okay, here we call it in. In the here in the street, there are residents with dementia or Alzheimer's. A lot of times it's combattant. So it's not anything unusual, it's not anything out of the norm. It is a very normal part for many, many, uh, people with Alzheimer's and dementia to become combattants and to to become frustrated and easily irritated and to push and pull and bite and take and punch. It is all very, very normal. However, all of that can be managed with medication. All of that can be managed.
Speaker 1:I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not someone that's so medicating down and making a zombie I'm not. But what I am saying is that all of those behaviors can be with the right geriatric site doctor, can be managed and under control, where they might still get frustrated and annoyed, but they're not going to lash out and punch some water, hit some water, throw stuff. It's managed correctly. And then let me tell you this too Nursing homes, assisted living, are not going to take someone that is combattant at all. What you're looking at is something a little bit different. When a resident that has Alzheimer's or dementia becomes combattant and violent, the first thing that we generally do is send them to a place called Ridgeview where they get Jerry's psych or site doctors who are used to dealing with residents who have patients who have Alzheimer's and dementia and also become combattant. They also deal with all other kinds. They deal with bipolar and all kinds of other behaviors, but they're they specialize and deal with residents, with patients, family members that have Alzheimer's and dementia and or dementia and become violent. We send them to Ridgeview or a place like that to get their meds under control. They will try different kinds of medications, different combinations, and it doesn't matter if he's been on a million different ones or none, they will find the cocktail that works right for each individual person to help those behaviors become manageable.
Speaker 3:Because going to a hospital or a nursing home, no one is going to admit him when he's still violent. I just need you to know that that is. That is the number one thing that gets residents not admitted to any nursing home in the state of Georgia or any, like she said, living. They will not take him when they realize that he is violent. You do have to disclose that, right, they know how to take care of him, but we don't admit people that are. We call it combattant. When they're combattant they can't come to us. They have to go to a Ridgeview or a place like that. I don't know where you live. That is going to help get those behaviors under control and manageable before he can gain admission to a facility. Okay, okay, so have you heard of that before?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, we first started out. We. We talked to mom something called mom yeah, place for mom and she told us a little bit about what would happen. Okay, she told us how much it would cost to put him in a sister's living or a nursing home for them or for someone to come out there, and she basically told her that she would have to sell her home and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like no, one of the reasons why we wanted the nursing home is because we can't do anything with him.
Speaker 2:Once he used the bathroom for himself, we can't get him to take down, take that. We become frustrated and 530s touch him. We're trying to help him in any kind of way and, like I was telling your friends before, he can see himself to find more control, and more control than in the house. And then another thing sometimes he takes his medication, sometimes he doesn't. You are finally like at the bottom of the cup. Where is the goal? Yeah, and her doctor did give her something that has to be there, but it's crystal clear. She makes me feel all the time.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of the medications do do that. They do say some. They say unfortunately. That's why I said like I'm not a huge advocate for like just meditating down to behaviors or what do you mean by being a part of things that have behaviors. But we need to find and it could be that the dose that they're giving them or the adipand or whatever they put him on, they do different kinds of pills that they use. They may, they may just do much for him during the day they're putting him to sleep and they have been that long-term success because he's here for what we consider to be more manageable.
Speaker 3:So the best way is kind of having a zombie life or sleep state which has that easier for and we don't advocate for that we want to give him any of our medications, something that is good to keep him in the sky and have him relax and not wait for his baby, but also not having, you know, hair, hair not in the face or anything for eight hours a day. And we're in the right doctor and not all doctors will be at our duty, so they're not all being at the time, but the right doctor is going to work with his baby and work with him and see if he's not letting him sleep and it could be a solid error for their health. You know the first couple of beds may be too strong and can end up sleeping, but others may not work at all. They may have to see the adipation and the right doctors and I'm not sure that I will get an extra time, but we have a lot that we've gotten. The rest, and you know they're mostly going to work with someone older and older and they might have back pain and see you're up front and they might, you know, make sure of medications and the combination of three or five different medications that work right for this particular person who has Alzheimer's or dementia. So you know it's not a one, five, six, five.
Speaker 3:Everyone's dementia in Alzheimer is very different depending on the person and the shades of it and the type of dementia, whether it's really bad or you're a frontal lobe or you know it's very different for everyone. But I think the most important takeaway here is that, yes, it's a living in the intensive Memory care, a place that's going to help him, dress them, bathe him, feed him, do him want, take care of him, make sure he gets medication, make sure he's actually taking them while he numbs. It's not an expensive, it is not an expensive. They probably just say it's coming in on the floor, the $3,200, and go up first. They're based on the location, and so on, and so on, and so on and so on, and so on.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute, hold on, say how much it is again, because we did sign them up for medication. We just went down there and do that and did that, so how much is it?
Speaker 3:It's about around $4,200, and what?
Speaker 2:Wow, even if you've come into the, are they living on site or are you coming into the home?
Speaker 3:So they are living on site and in the state of Georgia, medicaid and Medicare does not pay for that kind of care. It's off, I would say. There are short-term beds and when you say nursing homes, there are still nursing facilities, many of them in the state of Georgia and its still nursing facility is going to be only with acute care and what that means is that I'm going to be able to sign him a patient. Let me tell you something he is able to walk and see themselves and, even though he is a mental health and we may not know the day, time or the year recognize people all the time as acute care, still nursing. It will take Medicare for up to 21 days in recovery during acute care.
Speaker 3:We need a fall, recovering from a surgery, recovering from a wound, recovering from something like that. We need to rehab because they are going to be able to get into acute care nursing. We also need to be admitted. We have to qualify for acute care nursing and just to find someone who can better any care that does not qualify for what can exist in your mind as a nursing home, what you describe to me as someone that would not qualify for a care nursing, nor does Medicaid or Medicare pay for that kind of care? What you describe to me as someone who needs a memory care facility to do is activities of daily living and day to day care. We don't do five to five to five to three in the state of Georgia. We don't do Medicaid or Medicare but we don't do five to ten.
Speaker 2:Okay, that wraps up that question. So definitely looking for it. So far we've been running into people who do the private pay. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:It is a private paying mistake and I'll just go back with you if you have any questions. There are some smaller personal care homes that you can pass the time but it's still not going to be less than $3,000 a month. If he did a companion room, which we offer a lot of the communities that I work with, we can do companion rates for a member care, around $2,900 a month that do full care. That will address in the end room and then we can do a companion room which is a community that he lives in and that is private pay and they do start with a companion, with a companion with a shared mail who is in the same or, as he is, with the same behaviors and or all the time or dementia. It starts around $2,800 a month.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that gives me some idea of what we would have to pay what we're looking at, and I don't know if she'll be able to afford that.
Speaker 1:Right, well, that's why they probably mentioned a house sale.
Speaker 2:Because, yeah, I think his check is only like $1,700 after after they, you know they're not going to be able to afford that?
Speaker 3:Okay, we may want to ask them if they have a long term care policy. And we'll see you back then.
Speaker 2:If you know, we've got not a veteran. In fact I hate that. I try to tell people before they make different, because I do tax before this. I try to tell people before they make a move or when they retire. You know, a lot of times when you have a, you work for a company, the company provides you with a long term care and I try to tell people to let me know when you're going to retire so that I can tell you what to keep Right and to be a long term care was the cheaper if they were kept with the employee, the employer, because, of course, when that county school system, that's a large, that's a large county, so it wouldn't have been as expensive. But people, people will retire and they don't think about those things and so then it ends up even up the policy once they retire.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is one of those things that people do. Do you have anyone with you guys that can't actually have long term care policy and you can't get them off or any more? Not like that for us, that's it. But if they have, they need to move on to it First there.
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on if you work with your government if you work with your state government and your federal government. I don't know what positions, I can't speak for our positions, but that is part of the benefit package. It is? Yeah, it is. But my thing is, if you know that, you come from a family that has, like he, his father has died with Alzheimer's, and so he should have never gotten rid of that policy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he should have already kept that policy because he's not one of the reasons why he was he retired because he showed signs of the missing. I see, yeah, so that's it, but thank you for taking the time to talk to me about it. I think I know what to tell her. And we have to wait. Medicare told us, medicaid told us they're behind and so we have to wait 45 days anyway. So within 45 days, we are looking at different facilities to see what's happened Because, like you said, he is methanol for patients.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Right. I mean it's like the substance in a rock and a hard place because he's certainly in the chair, but you know it's in nursing. We don't have nursing homes anymore. That's why I'm kind of different. We don't have nursing homes.
Speaker 2:I think that's the same thing. Hold on, let me write the changes down then, because I want to get it right. There's no more nursing home time. That's been a long time.
Speaker 3:We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home. We don't have a nursing home.
Speaker 1:We don't have a nursing home.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:We have different relationships with different memory care. I have an in-home care agency where I have caregivers that come to the home to take care of people. I have a family that comes to the home to take care of people.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not know we're inside for that county. It's like we're straight If you're going down 124 to get to Grayson if you go down 124 towards the mall Stonecrest Mall, on the center road, I think it is the name of it once you cross over 20. We're right there at Centerville. Centerville is in 124. Centerville is the cross street. Once you cross over, we're always a huge car lot. That's right there in Mont Blanc Trace, but we're in that facility.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're in that vicinity, Okay, so, so, yeah, so, where you have all the information, thank you for him. He's going to have to. You know, they're going to have to figure out that whole situation with, with, because he's in a. He's in a dangerous way right now. So I think the medication has to be adjusted, all of that good stuff. So just really talking to the provider and getting him that that help I believe there may be some type of psychiatric place he may be go be able to go to to help him as well, just so it can adjust that medication. But it is going to be a cost, a little more of a higher cost with assisted living and memory care, which I believe that he that's what he needs. But to have a carrier to come to the home, that is doable, but it's also, you know, you know you're looking at 25 or 30 hour, but if he no, care company.
Speaker 1:I don't see him. I know that the people are are a little bit stricter. I don't put my my come to my ladies in any type of anger, so people have to get that medication adjusted accordingly in order to go ahead and get what he needs, you know. So I think that's that's, that's number one, the number one.
Speaker 1:I think about the room Well yeah, I mean you can do that, but just think about if you have a home, they can see your home insurance. If they get hurt, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, man, Somebody gets hurt they can try to sue you. That's that you know. That's why you wrote it like we have insurance. But I, really I, if, until he's controlled, I wouldn't, I still wouldn't place my finger there, because I know, I know that they still don't want to get hit. So I think. But that's the pervert, thank you.