Rita, Wanted to comment that it is a costly
proposition to have hourly paid caregiver/aide in a home environment. But
I do know from helping my dad arrange for home health aides for my mom who has
Alzheimer's that the rate of pay was normally $12 and up for having someone come
to be with her so dad could just get out to run errands. The aides often
showed up late or not at all.
Finally, we did take mom to a
nursing home and pay $93 per day. This over 24 hours is only about $4 per
hour and she has someone or several persons to attend to all her needs
24/7. So I can see why some states might push for a nursinghome as being
more cost effective as an individual needs more around the clock care.
How do disabled individuals stay
at home? Usually only while they have a family member willing and
able to provide the needed care. The single person like Ivan or
Hilary are the ones who find they are pushed by agencies to go the institutional
care route. Any of us could find ourselves in their
situation.
Who has ideas for solutions?
Jeanette Fuhr 50/47/44?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2001 10:27
AM
Subject: community based care for the
disabled
Reading Linda Herman's
posting this am re: community based care for
disability ...grants
available to some states to implement these programs in
the $5-8 million
range set me to doing some figuring and thinking.
Using figures from
various postings related to Ivan's situation in
Maine....PCA help during
the night. I used Ivan's request/comments because
they have been
discussed openly on the list...and it gave me a basis from
which to
start....a "what if" scenario. ...I went to several Maine websites
re home care and found that PCA (personal care asst) was basically not a
skilled medical professional, but for the individual who requires "social
needs and individual can assume responsibility for his/her own care"....So
I
interpret this as being.....not demented, no lifting of a patient, no
IVs, no
catheters, no injections, no wound care....a situation that many
individuals
cope with on a daily basis. (This is as opposed to skilled
nursing care....at
a MUCH higher price tag).
The general figure
being discussed seems to have been hopefully $8.50 per
hour for night time
care...for reliable employee.....so I did the math....
$8.50/hr
for 8 hrs.....$68.00 per night ......add benefits and the employer
(state?) pays a minimum of $85 per night for night time care for one
individual. extending that further......we go to $595 per
week........$30,940 per year PER patient for NIGHT time care at home.
Thinking in terms of the grants at $5-8 million.....per
state............That
translates out to 32 individuals receiving night
time PCA for each $1 million
per state. That is a bill for
only night time care.......no daytime hours
are covered in my figures.
Quite honestly....I was shocked at this figure! I do think we
really need to
look at the pricetags attached to the requests that we
make. The above
figures do not cover expenses of managing a program
for PCA's.....hiring,
supervising, scheduling....etc...I don't know what
those expenses are...but
the service does not come free. If we
extend that coverage to 16 hours per
day.....we are servicing only 16
persons for $1 million dollars......and they
still have 8 hours a day not
covered with assistance.....and I still have no
figures included for
someone to "manage the programs".
As Hilary commented, there is
a lot of lobbying effort going on for the
disabled community....and we
(PWP) are a very small segment of that
community......the disabled needing
care do range from newborn to
centennarians......many requiring much more
intense (medically necessary) or
constant (thinking Alzheimer's and
profound dementia's).....care than PWP's.
It would be a great
idea for us to present a joint effort in some of these
programs.
But I do find it frightening when viewing the overall picture,
that nighttime coverage in the home could possibly cost $30,900 per
individual per year.....(If we drop to $6.50 per hour...we are at almost
$25,000/yr...and are covering 40 persons per year at night for $1,000,000.
Or we are covering 20 persons for 16 hours per day. How many
people do you
estimate qualify for this type of care in your city?
state?).
I would like to have care available to individuals so that we
could remain in
our homes. Our family has had both negative and very
positive nursing home
experiences in the past four years....I know that
both exist.
Are our options better addressed with co habitation
arrangement....where a
couple of people with similar/compatible
needs share a residence? Group
homes?? If we
irradicated the term "institutional care" would we be more
accepting??
College dorms are mass living experiences where people can
support/care.....isn't that what some of the assisted living experiences
provide? Should we be asking for more support for these
communities?
I am asking myself questions out loud. I
would appreciate comments. I don't
know where I would throw my
support on these issues at this time. What are
the alternatives?
How does the price tag compare???
Rita Weeks 56/11