I would like to congratulate the staff at

Will-O--Bell Nursing Home in Bartlett, Texas by being our first professional caregivers to graduate the SAVVY Caregiver Class. The staff was truly amazing and participated as a group. The staff now has the information, skills, knowledge, and attitude to care for those with Alzheimer's disease or dementia.

 

Will-O-Bell Nursing Home is located at

412 N. Dalton, Bartlett, Texas  76511

254.527.3371

254.527.3173 Fax

 

 

 

Our own SAVVY Caregiver is a star!!!!! Written for an AARP News Bulletin Feature

 

Alice Rodriguez serves dinner to her mother, Alene Johnson, who moved in with her after being diagnosed with dementia. Aging and Disability Resource Centers in Texas offer assistance to caregivers such as Rodriguez. Next to Johnson is a doll that she refers to as her baby. Photo by Alicia Wagner Calzada

 

 

 

 

 

In her 22-year Army career, Alice L. Rodriguez learned to deal with challenges. She has a tough one now. In March, she became the primary caregiver for her 71-year-old mother, Alene Johnson. Her mom, who has dementia, lives in Rodriguez’s small suburban home in Copperas Cove.

Already raising her 12-year-old daughter, Rodriguez, 52, didn’t know what to expect from this life-altering situation. She knew she’d need help but was unsure what aid was available. A friend referred her to the Central Texas Aging and Disability Resource Center in Belton.

A single call linked her to several helpful resources: an agency that provided free sitters so she could safely leave her mom long enough to shop, dementia support for her mother and caregiver classes for herself. The services came from agencies spread over seven counties. Rodriguez might not have found them without the Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC), a federal-state-local program begun in Texas about two years ago. The program now has eight centers serving 34 counties around the major metropolitan areas.

The centers, which AARP has promoted in Texas and other states, streamline the daunting chore of finding help for caregivers, and ease the frustration of bouncing from one agency to another.

“We connect them to the service [they need] so they don’t get that bounce-around syndrome,” said Martha Ramirez, access and assistance coordinator for the Bexar Area Agency on Aging.

Peggy Naugle, a caregiver specialist at the Area Agency on Aging of Central Texas, calls the ADRCs an umbrella, “all the partner agencies under one roof.”

 

But while ADRCs can organize many different agencies together, they can’t determine Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid helps pay for long-term care when families have exhausted their resources.

To receive Medicaid, applicants have to go first to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and then to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services. The process can take up to 90 days.

In many cases, the delay can mean families in crisis turn to expensive nursing homes rather than less costly community care. Why? Because nursing homes are more likely than community care agencies to accept a patient before Medicaid eligibility is determined, said Amanda Fredriksen, AARP Texas senior manager for advocacy.

While pleased with the resource centers’ convenience, AARP supports legislation that would give the centers the ability to quickly approve Medicaid eligibility or be able—with a high degree of accuracy—to predict whether someone is going to be eligible.

“The idea is to create a single point of entry into the system,” said Tim Morstad, associate director of advocacy for AARP Texas.

Being able to determine whether Medicaid will cover a person’s community care is important to both individuals and the government, Fredriksen said.

“For someone to have a nursing home stay in Texas, it’s about $60,000 to $70,000 a year out of pocket,” Fredriksen said. “For a middle-income family, it’s not going to take very long to burn through their assets and have nothing left.” 

 

 

 

 

An estimated 44 million Americans age 18 and older provide unpaid assistance and support to older people and adults with disabilities who live in the community. The value of this unpaid labor force is estimated to be at least $306 billion annually, nearly double the combined costs of home health care ($43 billion) and nursing home care ($115 billion).

 

Evidence shows that most caregivers are ill-prepared for their role and provide care with little or no support, yet more than one-third of caregivers continue to provide intense care to others while suffering from poor health themselves. Studies have shown that an influential factor in a caregiver’s decision to place an impaired relative in a long-term care facility is the family caregiver’s own physical health.

 

A substantial body of research shows that family members who provide care to individuals with chronic or disabling conditions are themselves at risk. Emotional, mental, and physical health problems arise from complex caregiving situations and the strains of caring for frail or disabled relatives.

 

Today,medical advances, shorter hospital stays, limited discharge planning, and expansion of home care technology have placed increased costs as well as increased care responsibilities on families, who are being asked to shoulder greater care burdens for longer periods of time. To make matters worse, caregivers are more likely to lack health insurance coverage due to time out of the workforce. These burdens and health risks can hinder the caregivers’ ability to provide care, lead to higher health care costs and affect the quality of life of both the caregiver and care receivers. www.caregiver.org

 

 

 

 

 

AAACT provides the following services at no cost for caregivers who are taking care of a loved one 60 years or older through the Older American's Act of 1965:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursdays: 9:30 am - 1:30 pm

First Lutheran Church (31st and Adams in Temple)

Contact: 254.771.2942 - Jean Kitchens or

254.947.8198 Joyce McKinney

 

Tuesdays: 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

St.Frances Episcopal Church (Hickory and Stratford in Temple)

Contact: 254.939.2377 Dorothy Vitek

 

Wednesdays: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Grace United Methodist Church (101 W. Ave. F in

Copperas Cove)

Participants must be evaluated prior to being accepted

into the respite center, please call: 254.547.3729 for

more information.

 

 

 

 

Cats Corner is proud to acknowledge our

wonderful relationship and friendship with

Mr. Jim Comer.

Author of "When Roles Reverse" -

A Guide To Parenting Your Parents

 

Please visit his website to learn more

about this fantastic book that helps

every person get through the tough

times as well as acknowledge the great times of caring for your loved one.