Beatriz Terrazas is a journalist, writer, photographer- and a caregiver for her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. Beatriz resides in Dallas, Texas, while her sister Angelica and her mother reside in El Paso, Texas. Angelica is the primary caregiver, while Beatriz provides caregiver respite to her sister and also performs administrative tasks such as researching Medicaid coverage and making doctor’s appointments.
In her blog, “My Mother’s Brain: love in the times of dementia,” Beatriz writes about her day-to-day experiences as a caretaker for her mother. She writes about flying the 600+ miles to her mother’s home in El Paso, Texas, only to find her mother unable to recognize her. She writes about her frustration with her mother’s insistence on collecting aluminum cans from a public garbage can, or with taking off her swimsuit in public. Most poignant of all is Beatriz’s description of how she still craves her mother’s advice and reassurance, and how dearly she misses it.
Beatriz and her sister currently provide home care for their mother, but they also take advantage of adult day care and Medicaid worker services in the state of Texas. They are agonizing over the possibility of placing their mother into a nursing home when their her condition worsens. Both Beatriz and Angelica were raised with a strong sense of family obligation and duty, and the idea of having strangers looking after their mother inspires both their guilt and fear.
Even the current cost of care for Beatriz’s mother is not cheap. Both her supplemental Social Security and pension checks total no more than $11,000 per year, which would never cover the cost of care in a skilled nursing or even an assisted living facility. While Medicaid does pick up the cost of adult day care and in-home services and equipment, there is a significant amount of reimbursement paperwork to be filled out. And then there are the procedures that need to be performed immediately, such as a tooth extraction; through several blog posts, Beatriz describes how she and her sister lament over how they will be able to pay for the immediate dental care that their mother requires.
The situation with Beatriz’s mother is much different than that of her mother-in-law, who also suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. In the case of Beatriz’s mother-in-law, Nina, because the woman had better financial means, as well as long term care insurance, she is currently being cared for by the skilled nursing staff of a top-rated Texas memory care facility. This is fortunate, because Nina’s condition has progressed to the point where she can no longer walk, talk, or even feed herself.
Beatriz is often charged with conducting research on ways to enlist the help of Social Service and health agencies for her mother’s care. As a result, she knows about and provides a list of such service organizations in the state of Texas. Some of these organizations are geared towards Latinos, who make up a significant percentage of the Texas population.
The Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC)
La Voz del Anciano (a referral agency for lower-income and elderly Latinos)
Sandra Bond Chapman’s Center for BrainHealth.
Beatriz also writes extensively about the Alzheimer’s Association, and how the organization can provide needed advice, referrals, and support group information in the state of Texas. Dallas has its own local Alzheimer’s Association chapter, which can be visited online at www.AlzDallas.org.
Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimers's care, skilled nursing, Texas
