Babysitters for seniors on palliative care?
Hello! My partner's mother has been sick for decades at this point, but recently she was diagnosed with liver cancer. Because she's unhealthy in many other ways, she won't qualify for a transplant and is on palliative care.
She recently left a rehabilitation facility that was miserable (we aren't even sure she was getting all of her medications, and they definitely weren't arranging her doctor visits like they were supposed to). He wanted to do this for her because it's probably the last time she'll get to stay in her own home, but it has been a monumental effort. (Aside from the actual caregiving, she was a semi-hoarder - including pets - and cleaning the place took weeks of evenings and weekends. We still don't know what to do with the pets.)
Fortunately/unfortunately she has no resources. State programs are kicking in, thankfully, but basically until she goes into a nursing home or other facility, my partner has basically moved in. Fortunately we live just a few blocks away, but he can't leave her for more than 30 minutes or so unless someone else is there. Last night he came out for my son's birthday dinner, and he was gone for less than 2 hours. When he got back, she had gone down several concrete steps and was looking for him in the garage.
That's super scary - she knew where he was, so this was a memory lapse. That means that she could just wander outside down the street or something. She's fallen several times already.
She's also been trying to open my partner's bedroom door at all hours of the night, looking for him. It sounds like a zombie horror movie, and he's so, so exhausted.
He's been working remotely from her house, but he does have to go into the office sometimes. The last time I was able to spend a little time with her before I left for work, and an old friend of hers came by for a bit, and then a neighbor popped in here and there until my partner made it back.
The state's program is lining up in-home care, but they haven't found anyone yet. Who knows how long this is going to take. And even then, it's just 20 hours a week. She'll have some other services coming in regularly, but nights and weekends are going to be all him.
Are there like babysitters for this? Can we independently pay a CNA to sit with her for a few hours once or twice a month? Are there issues with insurance for the CNA?
Open to any other suggestions. It's only been a couple of weeks, and he's looking disheveled and intensely stressed out.