Caregiver Homes will provide its programs to frail elders and disabled adults participating in a new Medicaid funded Enhanced Adult Foster Care Program in Massachusetts. Caregiver Homes is a Boston-based company providing community based elder care and housing options for seniors and disabled adults in need of daily personal care and assistance. The new Program - announced on December 1, 2006 by the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs and the Office of Medicaid - represents an expansion of the existing Adult Foster Care program by allowing family members and friends to provide full time caregiving duties to elder and disabled adults who meet eligibility criteria established by the state.

“The new Program gives our elders an opportunity for community choice while allowing family members to remain at home to provide caregiving for their elder loved one” says Janice Masi, Massachusetts Executive Director for Caregiver Homes. “Prior to this innovative program, frail elders often had no option other than being placed in a nursing home - despite having a home and committed family caregivers”, continues Masi. Caregivers will receive up to $18,000 per year for home based care. The savings are substantial when compared with the average Medicaid supported semi-private nursing home bed rate in Massachusetts exceeding $65,000 per year.

Eligibility for the Adult Foster Care Program requires that the elder participant be a MassHealth (Massachusetts Medicaid) participant and demonstrate need for assistance with three activities of daily living (ADL) such as bathing, dressing and eating. Elders with two ADL’s and the need for management of behaviors such as wandering, resistance to care and being verbally abusive, may also be considered. Caregivers will provide elders with 24-hour supervision, assistance with daily activities and other personal care services as needed. Caregivers are supported by a team of professionals - an RN and a Care Manager - through regular home visits, and telephone contact, and receive specialized training based on the Plan of Care for the elder and linkage to other home care services.

Caregiver Homes, a subsidiary of Seniorlink (a Boston, MA eldercare services company) has demonstrated a successful track record of home based support for frail elders via its participation in a year long “Caring Homes” pilot project with the Executive Office of Elder Affairs in Massachusetts. Caregiver Homes also places seniors through other senior care organizations (e.g., PACE, SCO). Each caregiver is carefully screened (including CORI security checks) and the elder or disabled adult is evaluated using a comprehensive clinical assessment (MDS-HC). Upon admission to the program, the home is connected to supervising clinicians via SeniorTouchâ„¢ - a web-based care management system developed exclusively by Seniorlink. Caregivers and the care management team use SeniorTouchâ„¢ to submit daily notes about an elder, recording such information as nutritional intake, medication compliance and functional status (ADL and IADL).

“We are extremely excited” says Masi. “This program offers a unique combination of community housing and clinical support. Elders have a choice to live with their children and grandchildren in a home and community setting. And family caregivers receive payment for services while fulfilling a commitment to their elder rather than placing them in a nursing home or assisted living facility.”

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