Is There Help For Elder
Caregivers At Night?

My Mom is 88 collects SS and a small pension. She is on Medicare and has her own medical insurance. I have a women taking care of her and its is costing my husband and I money we cannot afford. Now she is hearing banging at night and she gets up at 3:30/4:00 and gets dressed. There is no banging is there any way I would be able to get help to stay with her at night and I could get help from Medicare. Thank you.

I'm afraid Medicare doesn't pay for what they call custodial care. Custodial care means needing help with things like meals, bathing, using the toilet, or confusion (like your mother). Medicare will cover actual medical costs - like medical treatment from your doctor, a hospital, medical tests, medical rehabilitation, and the like.

It is a shame, but here in the States we have no programs that will cover the cost of having someone stay with your mother at night, or even most of the day in most cases. For that matter, I'm not sure that kind of care is offered in any other country, either. It is just so very expensive to pay one person to stay with one person. The government finds it less expensive to provide care in a place where one person can care for and supervise several people at once.

Medicaid is the program that pays for long-term care outside the home - usually in a nursing home, although there are a few Medicaid programs that will pay for assisted living if it is appropriate. They are hard to get into and usually have long waiting lists. Not every state in the US has a Medicaid program for assisted living (often called a Medicaid waiver program).

Because your mother is beginning to have problems staying by herself at night it is probably time to begin researching your alternatives under Medicaid in your state. Contact your local Medicaid office for information about applying, and visit a few nursing homes near you, just to see what's available. Go ahead and put her name on waiting lists. There is no obligation just because she is on a nursing home waiting list.

I wish I could offer you a better alternative, but short of having her move in with you, which wouldn't solve the problem because you can't be up 24 hours a day to care for her, there isn't a good one.