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Jennybav

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Fishers
16 minutes ago



My dad has been suffering from ALS the last 2 years. He is now confined to a hospital bed at home. He is on a Trilogy non-invasive ventilator, needs to use his cough assist machine regularly, has to be fed by someone else, and has a catheter so he doesn't have to get up and down so much to use the restroom. He is on hospice, and they are helpful with bathing him and ordering medicine but my mom is in need of additional help in caring for him. I don't live in the same city as they do (they are in Muncie) ,but I am there at least three days a week to help. I have called several home health agencies that service their area, but they are not allowed to handle or turn his machines off and on. So if my mom needs to leave they would not be able to take his machine mask on and off and help him with the cough assist machine. He cannot do it on his own anymore. In addition, I have called several nursing home facilities to see if they will take patients that are on the Triology ventilator 24/7 and the nursing homes in their area do not take ventilator patients, even though it is a non invasive ventilator. Has anyone had to deal with this before? We have plenty of family who visit, but they would not be capable to help get him up and down if he needs to use the restroom. Any suggestions anyone has in home health care agencies that might be able to help or a place that has a pool of private nurses. Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
are you willing to pay decent wage........advertise on craigs list....look for someone at least a CMA.......do not go through agency.....many are not trained and poorly paid.....SUCCESS
 
Sorry I don't have any advice other than this:
Train the family.
Anything a nurse can do, a family member can learn to do.
 
The lives of caregivers...seriously, when someone says, "If you need anything, let us know." Let them know. You will quickly find out who is serious and who is not. Most hospices have a compiled list of "sitters". These are people that the agency has used in the past for just what you are needing.
 
I recently hired a woman off Caredotcom and have been very happy with her. we had an agency for the last 2 years and not problems with the woman that came from there, but she wasn't "allowed" to do some things we needed. your mom might want to be there anyway when the outside care givers are there --and could have her scheduled outing when you are home.
 
Thank you for the suggestions. I appreciate it!
 
I am going through the exact same thing, although Tim uses this sip&puff mouth piece during the day. He is still able to make a seal on the mouth piece, but at night I put him on a sealed face mask so that he can sleep he can not breath at all now without his trilogy. So we finally got his permanent residency card for Canada and he qualifies for home care, but they will not work with the trilogy. Thankfully, I am a nurse and know a few people that are willing to be trained by me, and have nursing skills as well. There is a program here that I will be applying for where I show the total amount of time spent caring for Tim and a 4 person board determines how much funding they will authorize and I can train and hire people with that money. I would treat them as my employees which means I am responsible for doing all their deductions and submitting them as any employer would. So I will be doing the paperwork marathon again, and hopefully I don't drop before Tim does.
 
I wish the US would offer home healthcare assistance! The trilogy is not such a big deal--I wonder why they won't help with that.

I know that on caredotcom there was a company that was linked or advertising there that did all the paperwork for you (for a small fee). It may be worth looking into--I lease my employees at my company and it is so much easier and worth the money. I am sure there a re companies that do that in Canada
 
With a vented patient you run into all kinds of roadblocks. I was going to have to hire a LPN or RN thru an agency at $35-50 an hour. Whew - couldn't afford that. Went on caredotcom and found a former nurse whose father had passed away from ALS. She was willing to be trained on the vent and was very reasonable. She was an angel and I was able to get out of the house once a week for 3-4 hours. I found her in April and Joe passed away in August.

Debbie
 
Jenny,
I've posted a couple of times on hiring your own part-time caregivers w/o going through agencies. Colleges and institutes with pre-nursing/nursing students and CNA grads are top of the list. Almost everyone has a Web portal for jobs these days.
 
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