My boyfriend and I live at my Grandmother's house. My grandmother was kicked out of the assisted living apartment she lived in due to her inability to get along with people. My uncle bought this house for her and my grandmother pays $500 for the rent. My uncle covers the remaining $300 to make the mortgage payment. My boyfriend and I are not paying anything for rent at this time. We do completely everything inside and outside the house (I cook, light clean and major cleaning, laundry, lawn work, gardening and shoveling). I take her to her medical appointments, grocery store, dollar store and such. The only thing I don't do is give her a bath. She only sponge bathes herself as she is afraid of falling in the tub. I have been doing all of this because I have been on a medical leave and unable to work for 3 years. ONLY the past year I have been taking care of my grandma. Soon I will be able to go back to work if I choose. However, with my grandmothers needs that have gotten greater since I've been here, I wonder if I can be paid to be her live-in caregiver? I want to reach out to get a PCA in here because there are some things that I do have to venture out of the house for on my own and it to the point where my grandma shouldn't be left alone for long periods of time due to her high risk of falls. I need to have an income when I am allowed to go back to work, I will lose the financial assistance that I currently receive. So how is it that I get paid if I were to be my grandma's full-time caregiver and had PCA's come in while I am gone? She only gets about 1K from social security and has Medicare. Please help guide me along and give me any answers or suggestions for things that I may want to think about. If it even matters, I am 42 my grandma was there for me all the time as a child and this is my way of giving back to her.
I can understand you wouldn't want to leave your Grandmother alone while you ran errands due to her falling. You might have to have your boyfriend, or your Grandmother's son [if he lives nearby] watch over Grandmother while you are out of the house for awhile.
I assume your Grandmother was in a nursing home with Medicaid [which is different from Medicare] paying for her room/board and care. Usually a nursing home can have the house doctor check your Grandmother and recommend some meds to calm her, thus making her easier to get along. I guess Grandmother gets along well with you and the rest of the family, correct?
Usually elders don't realize we, ourselves, are dealing with our own health issues and age decline. I know my parents, especially my Mom, refused to notice that I was in my late 60's and I just didn't have the energy nor the patience to do everything they wanted. I don't want that to happen to you.