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I am sure this widely varies, but about to move my dad from nursing home who is in late stage ALZ with propensity to aspirate (about 10K) a month to a memory care closer to my mom, much nicer environment, private room, and 6K a month, though no RNs 24 hours. RNs during regular hours and CNAs 24 hours with RNs on call. I don't have a problem with that.
But since my dad would really prefer to be home, was wondering if 6K would go a long way for home care if my mom and me were also there. I was assuming lets say 33.33 an hour would mean that 6K would provide for 180 hours a month or 6 hours a day. Perhaps that would be enough (would also have hospice coming). On the other hand maybe I don't see the whole breadth of the requirements.   I see answers on rates, but not how many hours are needed assuming I would move in for his remaining time and my mom is there. And we probably could get respite care from the VA.

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Karsten, I just want to let you know if dad is late stage ALZ he may need more than 6 hours a day, even with you and mom. My dad was pleasant and easy going,, but towards the end he was up ALL hours,, the breaking point for us was 36 hours straight, with mom, me and Hubs in the house.. and he was pee'd off and nasty during that time. So basically all 3 of us were up with him. We got him into a MC for a respite for all us, to decide what to do next, and get some dang rest! Hubs and I were still working AND we had a daytime paid CG. We just could not do it any more, hard as it was for all of to make that choice. We admitted him to MC for a 30 trial,, but extended it
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Karsten, please note it is usually more expensive to take care of a love at home at this stage. Let's say the cost for a professional caregiver from an Agency at $30/hour x 180 = $5,400 a month.

It would be nice to have Dad at home, but at what physical and emotional cost to your Mom and to you? It really does take a village to take care of a resident. At memory care, there are Aides and CNA's who are there around the clock, and the night shift is usually awake as there will be residents who wander and need to be carefully guided back to their room maybe a dozen times each night. In memory care, the residents are safe within the building, they cannot get outside to wander in the middle of the night, like one could if at home.

Oh, you mentioned that Dad would prefer to be home.... are you sure he is meaning the house that he and your Mom shared? Usually with memory loss, when a person says they want to go home, they mean their childhood home where life was fun and simple. You may find bringing Dad home would be upsetting to him, because this is not the home he meant.

This is a tough decision, but I would vote for your Dad to be in memory care at this stage of his life.
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I have my mom at home with no outside care other than hospice... Which sends a CNA twice a week to help with her bed bath (about an hour) and a nurse who comes and checks her vitals once a week (about 30 minutes). She is in stage 7 Alzheimer's. I don't find it to be difficult other than the lack of freedom to run to the store anytime I want... Which is not that big a deal. I really think it depends on the needs of the person you are caring for. We are only giving palliative care, no medical intervention at this point. I do need to feed her, give her drinks, move her, change her, keep her company, give her medicine, etc. All is easily done by my husband and I. You need to look at your father's specific needs.
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Karsten, something to factor in and which might change the financial dynamics is the aspiration tendency. I don't think you'd be comfortable with aides dealing with this; a nurse would be better.
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Depending on where you live, home care agencies tend to charge about $25. Per hour. The quality of the aides varies widely. You are the supervisor .

You need to be prepared for no shows, incompetent folks, etc.

Hospice will only sent an aide for an hour or two a week, if memory serves.

How many months are you prepared to move in for?
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Reinforcing Barb's comment - you need to be prepared for incompetent caregivers. And people who lie about their experience. Out of 3 private duty "carers" I hired recently, 1 lied about her qualifications for an absolutely necessary task, and the other could have caused an electrical incident when she used a wet cloth to wipe down a power strip while it was connected to a wall outlet. I managed to get the water out before it dripped too far into the actual plug.

Obviously, these 2 didn't meet standards.
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did you hire aids direct or through some agency? I thought an agency would have vetted the qualifications of the aids.
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I asked for lists from the Alzheimer's Association and the Area Agency on Aging, although the latter organization has its own homebound care. After one interview, they were removed from the potential list. The alleged nurse (who didn't even know what psychotropic drugs are) tried to push off a home service of the AAA, run by someone who I had already met with for a quote on yard work. His quote was 5 times as much as the actual company I hired, and he wanted to do far more than was necessary. He became belligerent when I repeated that I didn't need everything he wanted to do. When the so-called nurse tried to push them off to do "thousands of dollars worth of work" on Dad's house, I terminated the interview. They're permanently off all my lists.

I researched companies on the Alz. list, checked out corporate and franchise status as much as I could, then called them with a list of questions. I only asked some questions, called later and typically got a different person. When comparing some of the responses, I found inconsistencies. That was a tip-off.

But the make or break issue was reviewing the contract. Those who either wouldn't provide a copy for review or wouldn't negotiate or even make changes were off the list immediately.

As it turned out, the company I had vetted over a period of months and which I felt was outstanding wouldn't perform some of the medical services which they had earlier said they could handle. So I ended up in a desperate situation and hired a well known, respectable company.

But, unfortunately, after all the vetting, I ended up with a dud. I should have had a backup company in case the one I really wanted didn't work out. I goofed up.

And I also should have immediately e-mailed a copy of my work scope to any candidate to eliminate the ones who "picked and chose" what they would do.

However, I learned that the ownership of the franchise makes a big difference.
One poster here and two from my garden forum all recommended this agency. The individual handling our area wasn't even a medical person, had only owned the franchise a few years, and was much more of a marketing person than a caregiving manager.

If I had to hire private duty again (and at this stage in my father's life I doubt it will be necessary), I would have a few backups as alternates in case the first agency was a dud.
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