I’d like to share another story with you to put a face and a name on the kind of people whose lives are improved by home aide programs in North Carolina. My first story in this series introduced the Green family of Shelby, NC, who rely on a waiver for in-home assistive care through a state program called Personal Care Services (PCS). Today I’d like to tell you about the Robinson family of Grover, NC, who receive aid from the statewide Community Alternatives Program (CAP) waiver program.
CAP-DA Recipient Profile: Ann Robinson of Grover, NC
Ann Robinson is a lovely woman I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last six years. She approached BAYADA Home Health Care when her needs for in-home assistance were escalating due to multiple chronic health conditions—lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and severe COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)—and she felt she needed a higher quality of care than she was getting from another agency. As a long-time federal employee who helped to launch FEMA, Ann loved her job and traveling for work until her health declined to the point she could no longer do it. Today, at the age of 70, Ann relies on a wheelchair and a walker to get around her home, and on professional caregivers for help with mobility to prevent falls, self-care, shopping, chores, and managing a complex medication schedule.
Like so many of our clients, it is very important to Ann to be able to stay in her home with her husband Charlie and their beloved dog Sophie, but they don’t have adequate resources to do it alone. They have little to no family support, and Charlie also is disabled and depends on a wheelchair and assistive care services due to a heart condition and a serious motorcycle accident he had in the 1990s.
Luckily, a statewide in-home aide program called Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults (CAP-DA) has made it possible for Ann to get the help she needs. CAP-DA is one of several government-run waiver programs we work with that helps pay for in-home assistive care for eligible people who are at risk of going into an institution.
When I asked Ann what she would do if she didn’t have these services, she said that was a topic near and dear to her heart and she would try to answer without crying. “If I didn’t have this waiver to pay for home care services, I’m sure our doctors would want us to go into a facility,” Ann told me. “I am very thankful for BAYADA. My husband and I both want to stay home more than I can tell you. We desperately need these services.”
Quality care services make the difference
Mrs. Robinson’s CAP-DA waiver allows her to receive in-home assistive care services seven days a week. We’ve worked out her schedule so that she has a home health aide with her for 6-7 hours every Monday through Friday, and 3.5 hours every Saturday and Sunday, totaling 39 hours a week. Ann’s team of professionals protects her safety and helps her with necessities like bathing and dressing, grocery shopping, fixing breakfast, medication reminders, and light housekeeping.
“My aides help me in the shower, which is really great because I’m a very big fall risk,” Mrs. Robinson says. “I feel so much more secure when they’re around.”
BAYADA Home Health Aides also are an important source of stimulation and companionship for homebound seniors like Mrs. Robinson. “I really enjoy having the aides here because I feel like I learn something new every day.”
“My aides are very dedicated, and they’ve never missed a shift,” Mrs. Robinson says. “That says a lot about the company, and a lot about them as individuals. It’s obvious they love their work, and I feel 100 percent confident in the quality of their care.”
It’s still not easy for the Robinsons to live independently with disability and chronic illness, but with this crucial government waiver program, it is possible. They tell me they’re so grateful to be in their comfortable, familiar home and not in a facility.
“We manage, but it’s still hard,” Mrs. Robinson shares. “Some days are better than others. But at least we have each other—and Sophie--and we’re home.”
BAYADA has special expertise in state and federal assistive care programs
Our BAYADA service offices throughout North Carolina have great expertise in navigating the government waiver programs and helping our clients understand if they qualify for assistance with their needed care services. We carefully match home health aides with the individual clients they can help the best, so that our clients can depend on reliable, consistent care. And the high-quality care they provide always is supervised by a registered nurse with expertise on each client’s unique health care needs.
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