Reply #15: I can confirm what everyone else said about caregiving [View All]

My mother fell ill with dementia in the late '90s, and I had very little to no respite care, plus had to work full time to pay the bills. It took a toll on me and I'll never be the same again. My situation was different, had nothing to do with money. She probably should have gone to the nursing home at least 18 months before she did, but for some reason when I was with her she seemed ok, and I didn't want to push her into one if it was not needed. I usually worked afternoons or graveyards, and it was while I was gone that she started wondering. One day I came home and she was passed out on the floor. She had taken an overdose of her medication (not on purpose, she just forgot she had already taken her pill for the night and took it again, and again).
One day I came home from work and found the front door open and Mom nowhere in sight. Pretty soon a police car pulled up and the cop brought her in. He told me that this had happened several times (I didn't know because I was working. None of my neighbors told me). I'm just lucky that nothing happened to her when she left. I'm still traumatized by this more than 10 years later. So my advice to you is, forget about the money, get your Mom the help she needs.