u/TheShellAnswerMan

Background: My mother had a TBI about 15 years ago. I've been overseeing things since. While she was in her coma, my little brother turned whatever age made it so he couldn't be in my mother's household anymore and her household size dropped to 1. She then made $29/month too much to qualify for MA. This forced her to pay $450/month for Minnesota care (would be mnsure now) and they didn't cover 3 of the meds, for another $700 out of pocket and she would've been unable to even cover that, let alone literally anything else. I got her set up with supported employment to qualify her for MAEPD. There have been struggles, but it's worked.

Situation: my mother is clearly declining--her memory is getting worse, the automatic fake memories are getting to be a serious issue, she has become combative and incapable of restraining herself. She's almost certainly going to lose her supported employment whenever we have this meeting soon (she cannot return to work till we do and they've made it pretty clear they're over dealing with her). There is no other supported employment in her area. She is incapable of holding down a real job (obviously). If she does not earn $65/month from something that constitutes a "job" (but not too much more or she'll lose SSD and her apartment) she will lose her MAEPD and my right hand to God, she will die. She's on like 20 meds, at least 2 of them are patent law protected (meaning private insurance won't cover them and she'll have to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket for them) and she's like not doing well physically either. I am not being extra. This is literally life it death for her. Nevermind the spend down--if it was $450/month in 2010, I can't imagine how heinously expensive it would be now, but I'd bet she ends up homeless and unable to pay bills/eat. I am in too rough of a place to do much physically--she needs her doctors in the metro and I cannot afford to live there. I have a profoundly disabled child and 3 others and a brand new grand baby and my sewage line broke and I just am at capacity honestly. Importantly, she is on a CADI waiver but her worker is absolutely worthless. I have filed complaints and asked for a new one but *I* have to find a new one and have been trying for weeks and not a single one has even so much as called me back--and they have ZERO info about her. Like this must be typical.

Questions:

Are there programs (Minnesota) I may not have heard of? She's certified disabled by SSA and on a CADI waiver. She has an IHS worker. I've been trying for almost a year to get her an ARMHS worker and PCA, but as I mentioned, the CADI worker's favorite thing to do is not do her job.

Are there new and different options for health insurance? Something besides MA, Mnsure, and private insurance.

Is there an advocacy agency or something I could call? I tried the mental health ombudsman and they said it's not mental health (lol ok).

Does anyone know anything outside of MAEPD that can provide health insurance for someone who makes a tiny bit more than cap?

Can anyone tell me anything about services and/or the processes involved for getting her into a higher level of care if that's what's needed?

Please help me. TIA

Hello. I live in outstate Minnesota and have finally been believed and imaged and diagnosed with my spine just absolutely crumbling. There's arthritis, curve issues, DDD, neuropathy & impinged nerves, canal stenosis and all the muscles are angry about it. There are only 3 levels that are not effected by something but the worst are either side of the cervical fusion I had 3 years ago (C 4,5 &6) and L5S1 in the lumbar. The plan is to continue RFAs in my cervical spine and do one in the lumbar as well. I must choose the 2 most painful areas to do those in.I am allergic to all the steroids I've ever been given. The provider said it's been some years so that might change?? Like it's documented multiple times with multiple steroids. She will not manage *any* medications--not even the non-opioid ones. My primary keeps telling me all the medications are bad for me so I should stick to Tylenol and ibuprofen. These are also bad for me. They literally want me to take opiates like I don't understand. Anyway, the only pain clinics in this entire state are allegedly one in st cloud that sucks (it's centracare and absolutely *everything* I have to do with them is difficult, dismissive and they do shit like accidentally put in my chart that I'm dying of kidney failure all the damn time) and several in the twin cities. That's like 3 hrs drive one way from me--and driving causes pain to increase. It's my understanding I would have to report there at least once a month. Importantly, I have appointments every single week. The baseline is 2, and I've had up to 11 in a week. My child is disabled and so is my mother--so I have theirs in addition to mine. They said I need to do PT again. I did for over a year and the therapists were like this is doing nothing, sorry. They also want me to see if I can find a chiropractor that will touch me and try something called dry needling. This will make the bare minimum of appointments I have every week 4. Not a single one is close than a 35 minute drive. Plus the ablations and the nerve root injection they're going to make me do again even though it's documented that I'm allergic to it! Like how am I supposed to go to 4-8 appointments every single week and half of them are hours away?? How can this be the expectation and how THE FUCK is this not a flagrant violation of the Hippocratic oath??