Financial Crises for Caregivers: The Time vs. Money Dilemma

forward all the mail to your mom at the nursing home. My Dad passed away and was tired of receiving 'gimme money' mail with his name on it. She put on the envolpes "return to sender, addressee now resides at *****" the address she indicated was the location of my dad's cemetary and his plot number... amazing how quickly this resolved the problem.

Well if this was a perfect world than maybe we as caregiver would have help with taking care of your love ones but it is not. I am the oldest of six and I have been caring for my dad for almost seven years. Not even a vacation. You can not make grown people do anything so I have told myself it i what it is and i take care of my dad because I am all he has.

OMG!!! This didn't even answer the question!!! The question is, how do I keep my job, health insurance, income, house, sanity!!! Clip coupons and get utility discounts. Honestly. This is a serious question, not one that deserves half-brained suggestions like these. My husband was the one that was ill, so I am the only income. What I had to do was just work as much and as hard as I could when I was able and pray that my boss didn't get tired of it and let me go. I was lucky in that I have teenagers that could stay with him several hours a day while I worked. There really isn't much help for us, I have found, so even having gone through it, I have no suggestion other than hard work, and prayer.

give them the phone number to the nursing home and place your # on the do not call list.

This article was not helpful - and worse, implies that it contains some information that caregivers can use. Especially irksome was the line about a reply to Meigsters question being a helpful answer....drum roll please! After going to that link the "helpful" info was to check with your state because *some states let you be PCA*. DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH!!! WHen will editors and writers realize that most caregivers have spent so much time looking for info, unless it is something real please don't pull our chains and get our hopes up. Saving receipts and asking grandma to help with the bills is not helpful..,....recognizing that care for an elder family member is costly, takes time, and impacts your finances is helpful. No more articles like this please. We deserve better as caregivers, please respect our time when writing do nothing articles like this

Ihave taken care of our mother(3 other siblings--no financial help and very little otherwise) for 10 yrs. She had credit card debt when Itook over. I had been paying minimum until I recently had to put her in assisted living which they take all of her income. My name is not on her cards. Ido have power of attorney but am having trouble paying my own expenses. What needs to be done? I tell the creditors she is in a nursing home but they keep calling. Any suggestions?