Posted On: Monday, July 2, 2018
Taking care of your loved ones is a beautiful journey with the right help and knowledge. I wasn’t afraid of taking care of my mother, who had MS and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, after taking care of my daughter with serious mental health issues and my sister-in-law with tongue & tonsil cancer. I enjoyed every minute making them feel better and I had family and friends who were willing to help also.
During this time, I realized that Doctors and private care providers didn’t talk much about supportive care options. Luckily for me, I talked a lot to my friends to relieve my stress level and one of them told me to contact an elder lawyer. That’s when I found out the PACE program offered in Massachusetts.
PACE is a Medicare and Medicaid program that helps people meet their health care needs in the community instead of going to a nursing home or other facility. PACE stand for Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. With PACE, the focus is on the patient. You have a team of health care professionals working with you and your family to make sure your family gets the care you need to support your loved one.
PACE organizations provide care and services in home the community and the PACE center. All PACE centers meet State and Federal safety requirements. We worked with SUMMIT Elder Care. SUMMIT provides day programs for your elder parents and they will send in a bus to pick up your loved one!
Working with the PACE program and my Elder lawyer, we put together a health care proxy that made the transition easy and provided all the services she needed for the last 5 months of her life. I already had the power of attorney to help in making decisions about my mother’s care.
If I knew about PACE and these services sooner, it could have been set up quicker, even though I didn’t mind taking care of her at all.
You really have to be realistic about the care you’re able to provide without harming your own health. I had my whole family helping, even after Summit got involved. Everyone’s situation is different. I was lucky being in sales as I worked a lot at night while everyone was sleeping to keep my job going. Just remember a top priority is to take care of yourself!
I now work selling Mary Kay and I love to make women of all ages feel and look their best! If you know anyone who would like to try Mary Kay products, please contact me @508-958-4927.