What does it mean when someone says that they a caring for a relative in a nursing home?

I think you answered your own question. You are still taking care of 93 old mom.. Your feelings of her haven't changed, you still care for her....

Hardly anyone, on here at least, just places a loved on in a facility and forgets about them. That's kind of a misconception. It is a big change from caring for someone yourself in your home or theirs, or worrying about how they are doing on their own, and usually a positive one; not always though, if what occasioned the move was someone getting much worse or refusing home care that they used to accept. In any event, if you care, you stay involved as much as you can. It usually involves more driving, more phone calls, but less diaper changing. Even most of the folks who are estranged or on bad terms with their folks generally try to,stay on top of things to,whatever extent they are allowed to.

Sounds like she was receiving skilled services such as physical therapy. Once the goal is met and they have reached maximum potential, medicare will not pay so the resident usually applies for Medicaid to assist with the nursing home bill. Unless they qualify they will not receive therapy. They should still receive the same amount of care from the aides. Because she is Medicaid, the facility should be providing soap, shampoo, deodorant, tissues etc. unless she specifies a specific brand-then the resident will purchase it or the family will bring it in. Contact your long term care ombudsman, the ombudsman is an advocate and should be able to answer any questions you have regarding this issue.

When an elderly parent goes into a nursing home the caregiving doesn't stop, it's just different. We visit, sometimes we have to haul laundry back and forth, we make sure our parent has everything they need, we stay in touch with the social worker and the staff to ensure our parent is getting good care, we attend care plan meetings, if our parent loses something (which happens frequently) we are often responsible for finding it or replacing whatever it is, we deal with the financial issues that arise and still continue to take care of our parents business such as bills and appointments.

Having a parent in a nursing home is work that we need to stay on top of. We're still caregivers for our parent even though they're in a nursing home.