I met with an adult child of a client earlier this week. When the family first came to me about a year ago, the wife had late-stage Parkinson’s and the husband had been her primary caregiver for many years. The husband was clearly experiencing the stress and fatigue of
caregiver burnout. He realized he could no longer care for her at home and had made the agonizing decision that he needed to put his wife in a nursing home. During all the years he was caring for his wife, he ignored his own health and various pains and health problems he was experiencing. Now, because he ignored his own health for so long, it turns out he has terminal cancer and isn’t expected to live for more than a week. Meanwhile his wife is still suffering from Parkinson’s and is now in a
nursing home. At least we were able to do critical Medicaid Asset Protection planning while the husband was still able to participate. Upon the husband's death, all of their protected assets will be able to be used to benefit the wife, who is now on Medicaid. This will include by paying for all of the things that will help her, which Medicaid does not cover, such as a private companion to be with her in the nursing home now that she is losing her faithful husband of over 50
years.
I’ve written articles on caregiver burnout, but this case is different — it’s not just the stress and fatigue of caregiver burnout that harmed the caregiver, but also the caregiver ignoring their other health problems because they are so focused on the needs of the care recipient. This led me to research the scope of this issue, and I present to
you what I found below.
