How can my family deal with my grandma's dimentia ?

Question

My grandmother has moderate to severe dimentia (sp?) so we decided to let her move in with us. It has been a month and she cries almost every night, forgets everything, and is very selfish. Half the day she is a wonderful and kind, functional person, and the other half she is crazy with dimentia. What can we do for her? We can't send her to live alone and a nursing home is a very expensive option. Is there anything else?

Answer 1

Contacts can be made to
The hospital Social Worker,
Social / Human Services, Aging and Adult Services Dept.
the family Dr.

These are places to ask your questions and be directed to the help your family and grandmother need.
To begin with, she will need to be asessed,
her condition evaluated,
health insurance coverage considered,
financial situation, and properties totaled,
someone legally assigned to be in charge of her affairs,
treated by a Dr. (new medications can be effective).

You have several options, whether she can pay for it, or Medicare & Medicaid funds her required care.

If she ownes a home, its value may go to pay for her care.

The important thing is that she receives respectful, appropriate care for her last years with us. She may not understand today, or agree entirely with the necessary choices made, but she will definately be much better off than if your family had ignored her needs.
The choices your family is facing are out of love and respect for a person they dearly care about. Making her "happy" may not be possible in her condition. It is obvious they wish to honor her, which is just what she needs her family to do.

Answer 2

Well, you could check into whether she qualifies for any state supported long term care. That would take care of the cost. Also there are group homes many places in the country, sort of like assisted living, that are less expensive than a nursing home. They are often run by foreigners, often Romanians. Also, she needs some sort of medical management for prescription medicine to help with her behaviors. That might help you guys in taking care of her.