The SW told me that she thought his income would be too high for medicaid. Last night, on line, I saw something that indicated that his income would have to be a good deal higher before it would be too high. She was nice, but I've found, in the past, that he's gotten bad direction from them at the VA. When he needed appropriate senior housing, they said that could take over a year to find. (They recommended a VA nursing home.) On my own, I was able to find low-income, handicapped accessible, senior housing for him in less than 2 months. (He's done great there for years.) I've learned not to trust anything I'm told about how "hard" it is to find something.

Back then, at a team care conference, the SW was busy in a corner typing up stuff about another patient. I requested that we delay the start of the meeting, until she could grace us with her presence. Sorry to sound sour, but experience has done that to me. It seems that marginalized members of society are apt to remain exactly that without strong advocacy by some caring friend. (Excuse my vent.)

I guess things will surely vary by state. Any info would give me an idea of trends. I think VA practices might be more standardized across the nation.

SW has referred this to a nurse, who is supposed to contact us. I'm wondering what to expect. I read somewhere that the patient has to need assistance in at least 3 activities of daily living. He tends to say he can manage just fine with anything they ask about. Not true. I'm trying to coach him not to disqualify himself by sounding overly independent. People who've been through the vetting process often understand this issue.