11 Aug Family Members can be Paid for Caring for Alzheimer’s Patients

Get Paid for Caring for Alzheimer’s Patients

When a beloved member of your family – a parent, aunt or spouse, for example – suffers from Alzheimer’s disease caring for them can be challenging, and often takes a huge commitment, both financially and of your time.

This commitment can mean that the caregiver has to give up their job, move to their parent’s home to care for them, or move the relative into their own home in order to give them the attention and care that they need.

This can put a financial strain on the household at the same time as isolating the caregiver, all on top of the emotional strain that watching a loved one suffer from Alzheimer’s, and caring for their every need, puts on a person.

Florida was one of the first states in which Medicaid’s “cash and counseling” program could be redirected to pay a family member to provide care for an Alzheimer’s patients. Palm Beach residents are successfully caring for sufferers thanks to the program’s financial support.

This program proved so successful in Florida that it has now rolled out to a number of other states, and family caregivers are better able to cover the additional costs and meet the needs of an Alzheimer’s patient, in their own home.

Alzheimer’s Patients

To qualify for this “cash and counseling” funding you must apply through Medicaid – and must be eligible for their financial support. The patient will go through their usual testing process and the Medicaid program will assign an amount that pays for their care.

Traditionally that sum could either pay for residential care – where the patient is placed in a nursing home – or for a home health aide who would come into the home to care for the patient.

Now, thanks to the “cash and counseling” program that sum can instead be given to a family member who is “paid” to be the main caregiver, covering the household costs and buying any medical equipment or adaptions to the home that are required in order to care for the Alzheimer’s patients at home.

Being able to stay at home, in familiar surroundings and with family, often means that an Alzheimer’s patient will be happier and healthier for longer, and makes the burden of the care easier on the family who are caring for their everyday needs.

Medicaid, supporting the patient in their home through the “cash and counseling” program, are paying for their wellbeing and everyday care and relieving the financial burden that this often places on families who would prefer not to send their loved ones into a residential home, far from familiar faces and the love and support of their own home.

If you live in Palm Beach and are caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s and think you might qualify for this support, contact Medicaid for advice on how to apply.