Hello, I agree with what the other replies said, and additionally:
Does your sister have someone who is her Power of Attorney? And like others said, it is a good idea to reach out to people who know her, like friends, previous neighbors, coworkers, her church - to ask them to visit with her on a regular basis. If she has visits to look forward to, it greatly helps. If she likes pets, having someone bring their family pet to visit is a good idea.
I am all for home care, but sometimes, depending on the situation, and when it comes to alzheimers and dementia, sometimes it's better to be in assisted living or nursing home. Every situation is so very different and complex.
As far as thinking about your sister living at her own home, a lot depends on that, here are some tips:
- She would need an accountant or financial advisor or someone to be responsible for her money.
- She would need to have enough money to be able to pay for her household and someone to manage that.
- Instead of paying for an actual Geriatric Care Manager who has all of the creditials and degrees, there is a more economical way of having a Care Manager:
There are many caregivers out there that can provide this type of service - former nurses, nurses aids, etc. For instance, there are married couples that do "Couples Jobs", there's even websites for that, who provide 24 hour live-in care, who can be responsible for hiring / scheduling / supervision of additional home health aides, and who take care of the household budget and deal directly with the financial advisor, etc. Or even one live-in person can handle this type of job with additional caregivers. The great thing about it, is that it is more economical to have live in caregiver, because the caregiver(s) gets to know the patient well, knows what the house & yard need, can help to keep utility costs down, can make sure the bills get paid, patient gets their medications taken on time, to prevent falls, drive patient to doctor appointments, and can provide exercise and physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc, without having a specialized degree in Geriatric Care Management. And most importantly, the patient is their only patient, so they are much better taken care of, are stimulated more, and become "like family" with the caregivers.
It can be tough to find a perfect match - My husband and I did a 2 year live-in job for our neighbor, until she passed away - It just so happened by chance, that we were available to do this at the same time our neighbor needed this type of service. We did everything & more that a Geriatric Care Manager would provide, my nursing skills and my husband taking care of the budget, bills, yardwork, etc. For most of that time, we were running 3 different households: ours, plus she had 2 homes in different states, so we had a lot to do, like keeping track of all the bills, plus providing 24 hour care - we did not sleep much, worked 7 days a week for 2 years.
Of course you would want to hire someone with healthcare experience, who knows how demanding the job is, and someone who the patient trusts. Reminder: A background check on someone does not show how trustworthy they are - you have to really get to know the main caregiver(s), unless it is someone that the patient, like your sister, knew from the past.
With a bit of research, you might be able to find someone that your sister already knows, or even relatives of someone she knows whose family she trusts to take this type of job - maybe someone who is looking for a change in their career, or who is retired, who has nursing or home health care experience.
-Also, there are people who run an assited living business out of their own home - Years ago, I helped, part time, with a married couple who built their home especially for this type of business. They had 3 patients who each had their own bedroom, got a full bath daily, and were extremely well taken care of. They felt like they were more "at home". You could search for these types of arrangements online.
Good luck to you, please know that there are many responsibilities that you can delegate to others to help, to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed - don't be afraid to ask. You can even find other elderly folks who are lonely, to come to visit your sister. Search for volunteers for things like this on the internet. I understand how hard this is, it's very time consuming to run multiple households, and to take care of all the needs of an elderly person.
