Do you know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid? How about, in a pinch, how to find a nursing home and research which ones in your area might be good and others less so?
Life invariably gets harder when a loved-one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or any other condition likely to require continuous at-home care giving or placement in a nursing home. Rarely are any of the choices one is forced to make easy — emotionally, let alone financially.
“Families will say that the day they put someone in a facility — I’ve head them say — ‘It’s the worst day of my life,’” said Michelle Niedens, director of the Cognitive Care Network, part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center. It is one of 33 such research centers designated by the National Institute on Aging.
