Home Care Providers Keep Loved Ones in Comfort Zone

By Maria Smith, Cumberland Times-News

September 8, 2008

Sue Merritt learned how to do what was necessary to keep her loved one at home.

Merritt, who said she’s been “lucky enough” to serve as a home care provider since 2002, is one of 80 in Allegany County. Of those, 30 are independent workers while the remaining work for one of four companies.

The Allegany County Human Resources Development Commission Inc. through the Medicaid Older Adult Waiver Program makes it possible for homebound individuals to receive the assistance they need.

“We don’t have a lot of needs but everything we’ve needed, they’ve always done,” Merritt said. “It’s a wonderful program and the people we work with are wonderful.”

It isn’t simply a matter of wanting to become a home care provider, though. Much training is necessary, from CPR to first aid to gaining an EMT certification if one needs to give shots.

Merritt considers the training and time well worth it. She said her significant other was in a nursing home but was given the option to return home if someone was there to take care of him.

Once she learned of the home care provider program, she applied and underwent the necessary training. Care providers, who are compensated, can be anyone but a spouse.

Lynne Marlowe serves as HRDC’s Medicaid waiver coordinator, and said Allegany County has 44 people enrolled in the program. Statewide, 3,000 people can be accepted, and to date, about 2,800 individuals are involved.

About 12,000 people have taken advantage of the ability to sign up on a waiting list, just in case they’ll need the program some day. Individuals who qualify “automatically go to the top of the list.”

Those who qualify must have a 30-day stay in a nursing facility under long-term care Medicaid or Medicaid waiver registration, meet the nursing home level of care, and have a monthly income of less than $1,911 and assets less than $2,000.

Services include up to 12 hours of in-home care per day, adult medical day care, home-delivered meals, a personal emergency response system, assistive devices with a cap of $1,000 per year and $5,000 per lifetime, a monthly visit from a nurse monitor and nutritional consult with a registered dietitian.

Marlowe encourages anyone with a family member in a nursing home to give the office a call to see if staff can help. Those who don’t qualify will be referred to other services.

Dan Lewellen, HRDC’s deputy director, said allowing someone to remain home or in an assisted-living setting is the biggest benefit to the program.

“The value of the program is the quality of service the recipient gets,” he said. “They’re allowed to age in place in a setting of their choosing with as much dignity as possible.”

Lewellen commended not only HRDC staff, but also all agencies involved with elder services. Those individuals, he said, do what they do because they love it and they all work together.

Up to two weeks’ respite care is offered through the program, meaning the individual with needs can go to an assisted-living facility or providers can come to the home to give caregivers respite.

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