Sal was first introduced to you in a blog entitled “99 and Still Going Strong.” As 100 draws near, he continues to amaze us all, but in particular his very devoted caregiver, Meredith. Here’s what she reported to us recently:

I wanted to share my most recent adventure with Sal. He was very agitated that his valet was broken. This is a favorite piece of his furniture that holds his clothes by his bed and allows him to have more room for moving around in his wheel chair. He asked if I would take him to Ackerman and Sons to have them fix it even though he thought they would have to keep it for some time, and that it would be expensive to repair. I loaded it in the Caddy and off we went. We found the place, and they assisted us the minute we arrived. It was repaired in five minutes, and they loaded it back into the car. They said that it was Senior Discount Day and that the cost was “Free.” Sal was so touched that when he got in the car, he got very teary and said that this was the best day ever. Even though this seemed like such a small thing to do, it made an unbelievable difference in his freedom and ability to be on his own. I have to say that I thought it was just a simple errand with mission accomplished, but he talked about this on and off for the next four hours. He said that it is nice to meet people like this along life’s journey but then if he hadn’t had me to make it possible, it wouldn’t have happened. He felt that I was his lucky charm. This was so powerful to me. I can see that in daily living, it is the small stuff that counts for these seniors and we must always remember this.

Then, when we returned home and got the mail, the pope’s blessing was there. He gave me the honor of opening it because I had facilitated him receiving it. We looked over this ornate certificate honoring Sal for his 100 years. He again was overcome with emotion and said he can’t wait to frame it. He said he was so glad that I cared about his religious background.

So later this week we are going back to Ackerman and Sons to give them something from Sal (I think he wants to get them a bottle of wine) and then to the framing shop. He just pats my arm and says, “You are the blessing in my life.”

And I found him through Barton Home Care - what a blessing for me too!

Meredith
Caregiver Extraordinaire for Barton Home Care

With an aging “Boomer” population and with many of the “Boomers” themselves facing the responsibility of caring for their parents, several challenges are presented. Meeting long term care challenges is complicated and often expensive. Two possible forms of help include assisted living and home health care. Assisted living is a long term care alternative housing arrangement for older adults who need help dressing, eating, bathing and toileting, but don’t need intense medical or nursing care. In-home companion care is a long term care concept that can encompass many social and personalized services. These services are provided at home to recovering, disabled, chronically or terminally ill persons who need help with various essential activities of daily living. The problem is that neither of these long term care options qualifies for any financial assistance from Medicare. They have to be paid for with the personal finances of the family involved. Some health or long-term insurance policies may cover some of the costs connected to assisted living.

Even though most of the elder population wants to live the remainder of their lives in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes, particularly when facing health issues, this may be an unfulfilled dream. Unless they have saved a considerable amount of money or get creative, like getting a reverse home mortgage, long term care services they most need or want like assisted living or in-home companion care may elude them. Medicare has not yet and probably never will be able to address the need for these kinds of services. Medicare is in as much or more financial turmoil as Social Security. It is plagued by rising health care costs and an aging population. The system is paying out more benefits than it is receiving in taxes. Failure seems certain if it doesn’t soon get a major overhaul. It is a not a government-run health insurance program but rather a government-funded health insurance program. As long as private insurers and providers are involved, the motivation will be to raise prices–not to evaluate, expand, and improve programs.

Medicare has not done well in explaining or managing the implementation of its new drug prescription system. In addition to that debacle, there are other flaws in its daily operation, one of which I can speak to personally. My father recently had back surgery. When he was released from the hospital, he had visiting nurses assigned to him for several weeks. He was also given a prescription for physical therapy. Months later, the physical therapy center told him that he owed them several hundred dollars because Medicare would not pay for both a visiting nurse and physical therapy at the same time. How would the average person know this? At this juncture, theoretically, he does not have to pay as the transgression was determined not to be his. He spent a lot of time, however, worrying about the outcome of this. It seems that Medicare is facing perilous times ahead, both financially and logistically. Will it be up to the challenge?

Gerri Tyber, Operations Manager
Barton Home Care