Bonus Episode—Transition of Care For My Mom (A Personal Story)

Raising 'Rents (as in paRents) a show about caring for an aging parent or adult

Host Zack Demopoulos prepares to kick off Season 2 of Raising ‘Rents but before he does he shares a bonus episode on the transition of care for a family loved one who has been hospitalized and is being discharged. This one is a personal story about Zack’s Mom. It is the first time he is sharing on a personal note and plans to do more in the future.

Show Notes:

Sibling dynamics--Zack has to work with his brother to care for their mother who has been hospitalized with a contagious virus that has weakened her and heart problem called supraventriculartachycardia. His brother lives in North Carolina near their mother and along with his wife is the primary caregiver. Zack lives in New Jersey and is a long distance caregiver.

Cost of caring, especially as a long distance caregiver-- Zack walks through what it takes to leave New Jersey on short notice to help his brother care for their mother.

Challenges of your mother telling you she wants to go home from the hospital and there is no clear plan yet.

Hospital case manager--very important you meet with them early and have them help you start planning for your family member’s hospital discharge.

Doctor says his mother can go home but with a plan that includes 24/7 care which Zack knew would not fly with his mom.

Zack reviews options with his mother which include going home with 24/7 care which she did not want nor can a family member help her with or go to a subacute rehab facility which she immediately rejects because she considered that to be a nursing home.

He convinces her to agree to go to a subacute rehab facility. Case manager gives Zack a list of recommended facilities. He is not familiar with any of them being from out of town. He reaches out to his home care provider peer and friend in Charlotte ComForCare Charlotte NC and received recommendations, two of them being on the list. Zack also asked the doctor who replied that she did not know anything about them but if it was her mother, she would go to each facility in person and check them out and make a decision from there.

Zack’s brother wants their mother to go to a rehab facility by his work so if need be he can run over briefly and see her. It was mostly about location than anything else. Zack instead tries to use factors such as how good the Physical Therapy is, is subacute separated from long term care (nursing home), how many aides are there per number of patients, and if a private room is available that is paid for by Medicare. Sibling dynamics once again come into play here.

After selecting a subacute facility, Zack is ready to take his mom there. Very important that you get the discharge plan documents from the Director of Nursing or Case Manager so that you can share it with the facility. Discharge plan has special instructions and lists medications, some of them could be new since her hospital admission.

Thank you for listening to the Raising ‘Rents podcast. This was Episode 25. If you have any questions or feedback, please go to our website www.raisingrents.com and click on the “Contact” tab. You can also find the show notes and references to anything we talked about. Until we talk again, remember that our parents raised us, the least we can do is help raise them. Talk to you later.

Sources used in this series:

• Intro/outro music: Arthaiz
• Other music used on this episode: Bensound: “ Better Days”
• Daughter Anastasia Demopoulos does the opening voice over
• Website created and managed by Philip Golden
• Sponsor: ComForCare Fairfield NJ https://comforcare.com/new-jersey/fairfield