My mother (69) just had a partial foot amputation due to an infection. She has been sent to a rehab/nursing facility to receive additional care and PT. She has diabetes, osteoarthritis, and over weight. She lives alone and already has issues moving around on her own. She keeps talking about her getting out of the facility but this is where she needs to be. I'm looking for assisted living facilities to take her when or if she gets cleared by the rehab facility to leave. I'm wondering if the rehab facility will deem her unfit to return home and begin the process of admitting her to the facility indefinitely? Is that even a thing? What's the best way to find care for her when she's on medicare? I'm only 29 first time dealing with this. I needs lots of help.
Be aware AL is private pay. Medicaid rarely pays for it, something u need to check on with Medicaid. Medicaid will pay for care in a LTC facility but Mom has to only have so much income a month and so much in assets. You can make an appt with Medicaid to see what the limits are in your State and ask any questions you may have.
Since still in the hospital, I suggest discussing this ASAP with the social worker and/or discharge/ placement planner. If you think its impossible that she will be ok at home and manageable, then tell them this. There are a variety of options depending on need, from further short term skilled nursing facility, long term SNF, or assisted living. Payment/ coverage can vary and depends whether short term or long term and which place.....
And it may well kill her.
See to it that you do attend any discharge planning. Talk to Social Workers at the facility where she is and let them know she should not return home alone and cannot do care or even keep herself clean if they come in and do wound care.
Tell them that you are working and that you cannot care for her and that you will not participate in nor enable an unsafe move home.
I advise you not to take on POA or guardianship of any kind. She is competent. SHE NEEDS TO BE THE ONE to work with discharge planning on placement and followup care. This is between her and her medical team if she is competent. These are life and death decisions you should not have to make for her.
For you, if they do an unsafe discharge (and tell them in those exact words--"unsafe discharge" because those words can rip their license right out from under them) you need to call EMS for transport back to a hospital or call APS if EMS won't transport her back. Don't enable this. Don't cook, shop, clean, attempt to heal this wound. It is very common for amputations to work this way with an inch at a time and surgery after surgery.
What you have now is an overweight, injured with open infected wound that can go septic in a diabetic who CANNOT CONCEIVABLY care for herself, and you cannot care for either!
You should not in any way enable your mother's return to her home.
If she insists on going there and insists on something this dangerous to her own well being then you should tell her the following IN FRONT OF a social worker:
"Mom, I love you, but I have my own life and am not capable of caring for you. You aren't capable of caring for yourself. If you infect again you could easily go septic and die. If you insist on going home and this facility unsafely discharges you there I cannot/will not enable this by taking on your care. You must get placement. If you return home unsafely I will call an ambulance to take you to hospital when needed, or call APS to assess your living circumstances, but I won't be a part of something that may well kill you."
If you can, put this in writing and ask that it be scanned into the chart.
Good luck. I hope you'll update us.