Visiting loved ones is a time of sharing, and often hearing how they are doing. With visiting in full swing this holiday season, a number of questions have come my way on resources, services and ideas on how to help someone coping with change.
Check my column last month at areaagencyonaging.org, under News/Articles for ideas and opportunities related to dementia. Given recent inquiries, this month I want to highlight some key resources and perhaps dispel some myths.
What are the myths? A prevailing mindset still exists that if you need ongoing care with daily activities like dressing, eating, bathing or simply living safely in your home, a nursing home is where you should be. Another myth is that you must be totally impoverished and have successfully applied for Medicaid, health insurance for the impoverished, to receive any assistance to cover the cost of ongoing, long-term care.
First, nursing homes are important and have their place. However, many people with nursing home level of care needs can successfully live at home with adequate support. It’s true that years ago, Medicaid would only cover costs of care if someone eligible lived in a nursing home or state-run mental health institution.
Bolstered by a Supreme Court decision in 1999, this changed dramatically. Called the Olmstead decision, the law established the right of persons requiring ongoing care to live in the most integrated setting possible.
Ongoing care is expensive.
The country’s demographic has changed over the decades with the number of persons living to advanced age, as well as the number of individuals surviving disabling accidents, both growing by leaps and bounds.
Shifting Medicaid to support home-based care was not only beneficial to persons needing care, but also made huge financial sense.
Every state was able to set their own eligibility rules for Medicaid care in the home. This gets to my second myth: impoverishment.
Michigan, like many other states, determined that one’s ability to successfully stay at home would be better if they weren’t fully impoverished. So, Michigan set its eligibility rules to include not only persons already on Medicaid, but also people who never have been on Medicaid but who, if they entered a nursing home, within six months would become impoverished and apply for ongoing coverage.
This was genius. The result allows persons with nursing home level of care needs to retain some of their resources and live at home with support at a fraction of the cost of a nursing home. There has been huge growth in services to persons living in a home setting with nursing home-type needs at a significantly lower per person cost. This saves limited government money and supports personal independence, a true win-win.
In Michigan, this effort is called MIChoice. You can learn more locally by calling the Info-Line for Aging & Disability at 1-800-6542810. No cost, no obligation. Share the number, make the call. Those folks are professionals and can answer questions or brainstorm solutions on a host of topics.
What about loved ones living in other communities outside Southwest Michigan or in other states? The national Eldercare Locator is accessible by calling 1-800-677-1116. It’s also a public service, no cost, no obligation.
When you call, professionals can provide information directly, or, if you give them the zip code where your loved one needing support lives, they can connect you with an unbiased source of information knowledgeable about that area. People living out of this area find the Area Agency on Aging’s local Info-Line in Southwest Michigan through the Locater on a regular basis.
Enjoy the holidays and your loved ones – and be armed with good information should it be needed. Peace.
Lynn Kellogg is former CEO of Region IV Area Agency on Aging in Southwest Michigan. Questions on age or independence services? Call the Info-Line for Aging & Disability at 800-6542810 or visit areaagencyonaging.org. The Generations column appears each weekend in The Herald-Palladium.