Providing safe, healthy, loving care for our loved one with Alzheimer’s disease often ultimately means moving them to a care facility. When our loved one’s needs are beyond what one person can provide, a team of caregivers is required.

Making that decision is heart wrenching. We begin this path with the full intention of providing for them ourselves. However, the round-the-clock, intensive care may increasingly become impossible.

Once the decision to is made and an appropriate home is found, we must find the way to pay for the care. Monthly payments typically range from $5,000-10,000 a month or more. “Nest eggs” are quickly depleted at such an exorbitant price.

I’m often asked how families can generate the funds. Here are a few suggestions:

• Tap into savings
• Cash in investments
• Remortgage our loved one’s house
• Attain a reverse mortgage on our loved one’s house
• Borrow on or cash in life insurance policies
• Pension payments and social security may pay a portion of the fee
• The other spouse may downsize the couple’s home
• Use income from the other spouse’s employment
• Family members can all chip in each month or take turns making payments

People with Alzheimer’s disease live an average of 8 years from the time of diagnosis but many far exceed this average. The extent of care can quickly drain all assets from an entire family.

The basic guideline is that Medicaid will take over when the individual or couple with a spouse with Alzheimer’s is down to $2500, however, it is much more complicated. It’s best to seek legal and financial advice long before this point so appropriate decisions can be made.

And know that many homes do not accept Medicaid. Our loved one will have to be moved to one that does.

(For more information on Alzheimer’s disease, see my book, Navigating Alzheimer’s, which is available from ACTA Publications, Amazon.com, and my website.)