Senior Citizens, if you could get care/live at home instead of a nursing home would you?

Question

I am doing a research paper on implementing Medicaid Waivers for seniors so they can live at home and receive long-term care at home instead of being in a nursing home in the state of Pennsylvania.

If you are a senior, I'd love to hear your thoughts. A state, first name, and an Age would also be incredible so I can use direct quotes.

I know they do this in a few other states (i.e. Vermont) if you are not necessarily a senior but have experienced the waiver program with a parent, grandparent, etc. I am also interested in your thoughts.

Thank you so much for your time! I know there must be a few seniors out there using the internet somewhere!

Answer 1

I would accept in home care in a heartbeat..more comfortable, privacy, everything familiar, less stress and every time you move an older person there is a greater chance of becoming more and more confused..

California..Pat..69

Answer 2

there is a trend now to keep seniors at home as long as possible. The time they should go to the nursing home is when they need intravenous feeding or some kinds of injections or they are recovering from a stroke or heart attack and have no one at home to care for them. They start on a program and then eventually work their way back to living at their own place with a caregiver coming in daily to help them or living at their place till they can do things on their own. putting a senior member of the family into a nursing home even with you visiting as often as you can does change their daily eating habits and also their mobility because the caregivers there don't have enough time to spend with each person individually), and even if they have TV and conversation some still feel isolated and pass within a few years. the bad part is that every year here at least one nursing home facility goes bankrupt or is sited and someone jailed for neglect so the people who live there have to find new homes to go to, and so some of the homes are not of their own choosing and may not be good for them. Some of the bad things are rodents and bugs, smell of urine, unsightly things, infected illnesses, or a cancer haven taken over a patient which is appalling to see..

Answer 3

I had to live in a Health and Rehabilitation Center (Nursing Home)for 3 months. When I got there I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to be there at all. The only thing I could move were my arms and head. A few days later I started Physical and Occupatioan Therapy. They helped my up out of bed standing and helped me turn around and sit in a wheelchair the first day of Therapy. Three months after I arrived I walked out with a walker but walking non the less. I didn't want to be there at first but if I had to stay a few more days than I did i would have stayed !! I was so attached to the other residents and staff !!! That was 2 1/2 years ago and I still miss them !! What I am saying is if I had to go back I would. Staying home is a very lonely place to be when you are ill. Even your closest loved ones lose patience. Nursing homes today aren't like they use to be. They do everything they can to get you well and home !!! There are problems sure. But you will find them everywhere.I have also seen many a Nursing Home resident abuse the staff !! Verbally and physically. It was lonely for me at home. Sooooo very lonely. In the Nursing Home there were people around doing something all the time !!! I had more fun there than I do now and I'm not kidding !!! Check around ! Go through the facility !! Talk to patients who are out and about. Talk to their families !!! Check it out !!! They even had me singing Karaoke !!! Anyway, that's my opinion folks !!!!

Answer 4

Missouri, "CJ", 66 years young - - - - yes I love this idea. However, I do not qualify for Medicaid - income "too large" according to the Govt. (Large? what a laugh). I recently heard on a tv news magazine program that Massachusetts had proposed a program where the State paid either a child of a senior, or an able-bodied friend of a senior, $10.00 a day to care for those over 65 in their homes. Not sure if this State Legislation passed or not - but it made a lot of sense to me. The less Government I have in my life, the better I like it. CJ

Answer 5

I beleive most would prefere to be at home if at all possible.

My mom would have for sure.....there wasn't any chance of getting better.....she needed dialysis though. Lord knows what the fee for that was but it was 300 each way for an ambulance....every other day. It would have been better if it was from her home or had a mobile unit brought in but this was from a home as well......just the trip destroyed her. I got her moved to another home where they had dialysis....and she died after the first treatment there. It was floors and even the move through elevators and such was too much. She was so ill.....the home was so noisy and it was so stressful for her. She could barely eat and with all the medications she was on...certain things made her ill and changed the taste of foods.....you either ate what they brought or you didn't eat. Needless to say.....she quit eating. She couldn't feed herself and after the staff passed the food out.....then they'd come back and try and feed her ice cold food. In a home it's close to impossible to please everyone so I don't blame them.....I just know at home It would have been so much easier to switch the lime jello for cherry without a major production and a 45 minute wait.

In her case.....she knew it was over....last days and no you can't have another 7-up because of diet restrictions? I don't want someone telling me what I can and cannot do or have the last period of my life when I know I'm dying and there's no hope. They seem to have lost the importance of choices

She was paying top dollar and not able to participate in any of the activities. She couldn't turn her TV on and off or change channels.Turn off lights or shut the door. The massive amount of money for her care would have better well spent making her final days more to her comfort and alot less expensive at home. We were trying to find out about it and see what we could do...but she died and no-one gave us jack for information on anything to do with home care to help us speed up the process at all.

Doris....70's...Illinois...my mom.....severe rheumatoid arthritis and kidney failure.

Answer 6

I am a senior and I reside in Washington state. And I agree with the majority. I would prefer to live at home, but I would have to live in a nursing home if I were alone. I couldn't live
with our daughter, and I know she wouldn't want me to either. There are probably a few where the staff do care. But by and large,they mostlywork for their paychecks and it's easier on their schedules, if they medicate their patients, so they are
not a bother. For those who are ambulatory, they are the better for it. As when you have to rely on the nurses to take care of you, they tend to lose respect, and then you become just a room number to them. Even if they do remember your
name.
I worked in a nursing home as a teenager and saw enough.
And I observed how my grandmother was treated in a top
nursing home several years ago. She was so doped up, she
thought I was my daughter, and really gave me a bawling out
for something I was unable to understand. When she was
brought to my aunts' to live, she resumed her normal person-
ality and was able to smile again. I have been to retirement
homes and have seen that people are treated with respect
as long as they can take care of themselves. When they become a patient in the 'assisted living' wing, they are put
onto a schedule and their identities go out the window when
they are being medicated around the clock.
Recently, a close and dear friend decided to move her mother to an assisted living center a half hour away, to be closer to her. And she had her new room furnished with all her mothers nicest things including oil paintings. Something happened after the transfer. Her vital signs started to decline and her kidneys began shutting down. And just the night be-
for her passing, she was able to laugh with her daughter and grandaughter. So when my friend was called, she found that
her mother was heavily drugged and was only able to hold
onto my friends hand, before she passed away quietly. She
was on a heavy dose of Morphine. And she didn't seem to
know where she was. My friend said her eyes were glazed,
and she was silent. Nothing like the evening before. I have
heard that this is a common medication that they give to
those near death. To make the transition without being panicked. My friend had made the decision not to bring her
to her home. And she now regrets it,and is grieving over her
poor decision. She felt in putting her mother into a nursing home, if she had to be lifted, they had strong people to do
just that. And if she chose not to eat, they could put her on
an IV if necessary. She did not know her mother was so
close to dying. So she was totally unprepared.
Just from all of my observations, I would say going into a
nursing home, is a death sentence, no one wants. But many
can't protest about if that's the only option available. Some-
times, if no one wants you, that is your only choice.
Shari~64 yrs.

Answer 7

What is wrong with giving people a choice?

For some living in a seniors home is preferable if they have lost their spouse, or never had one, and have no family, or none living close by. There are social advantages to living in a seniors home, and these people who are alone do much much better in a seniors home. A lot of people who are alone dont eat well, they dont get out very much and isolation and loneliness takes a toll on their mental and physical health and wellbeing.

HOWEVER many people would prefer to stay in their own homes, being forced to move can be a severe mental and emotional trauma to them, and these people often deteriorate very rapidly when forced to do so.

One elderly woman I know was forced by her family to sell her house, I bought it, and the SAME day they moved her into a high rise seniors housing complex she jumped off her balcony and killed herself.

They tried to shut down a very small private senior care home on Vancouver Island and said they were going to transfer the five residents to a bigger government run facility, and one had a stroke, another commited suicide.

Why dont seniors have the freedom and rights to choose where they live without being financially penalized if they choose to be independent as long as they can be?

Answer 8

I am a senior and I would rather live in my own home, instead of a nursing home because, I would feel more comfortable, nursing homes have some people that are truly unhappy and some don't even realize where they are. It is truly sad to watch some people that have problems like that. It takes a special person to take care of those people. I am a 76 yr.old female from Michigan

Answer 9

I'm a few years away from this and my answer is yes. My grandmother was beaten to death in a nursing home and my mother was so seriously abused she was never the same mentally afterwards. I myself plan to find other seniors willing to share a home and we can share expenses and help each other with daily basic needs and have a caregiver come in a few days a week. There is no way in hell I would ever go into any sort of nursing facility. I would kill myself first.

Answer 10

I'm not there yet, but I would definitely prefer living at home with someone who could help me out. In many nursing homes there is abuse, or the patients are shut up and kept quiet by stuffing unnecessary pills into them. One doesn't have the freedom like when living at home. Unless of course you are very rich, then it might be better, but I think that even the very best homes are mediocre at best. For the elderly it is important to be needed and and to be surrounded by family and friends and not to be locked up where life will start to seem senseless. The thing about the elderly is that they are young people who live inside old bodies that are not as fit as they used to be.A nursing home would be like prison for a younger person.
My grandmother died at a nursing home because they forgot to give her her necessary medication she needed to survive. They were totally negligent.
No matter what my kids would try to do with me, I would never go into a nursing home.

Answer 11

I for one gave up a job and came back home to take care of my parents. I tried hard to find a program that would pay me to stay with and take care of my parents with no luck. If I was not kin to them, some programs would pay me to take care of them. Neither one of my parents wanted to go to a nursing home nor did I want them in one either. So I ended up getting another job close to their home so that I could make some money but yet be able to take care of them at the same time. Part of this story is in my profile.