[Music begins playing]
Money Follows the Person Behavioral Health Pilot
Participant Stories
Chris
Chris I wanted to move out of the nursing home because I wanted to have my freedom again. I wanted to prove that I could handle things on my own with some help.
Helen Eisert, LCSW, MFP-BH Project Coordinator, Department of Psychiatry, UT Health Science Center
Helen I met Chris about 11 months ago in the nursing home. He was super excited about moving out, but he was really open with sharing the fears that he had around moving out as well. His biggest fear was that he would not be successful, that he would go through all of this work to move out of the nursing home, go through all of the steps, get out, and have to come back. So that was a lot of what we worked on: the fears around that and identifying the supports that he did have in place, making sure that there was a solid plan so that he could overcome some of those fears.
Chris What I like about the program mostly is having the weekly attention and knowing that she’ll be here every week for us to discuss something and to go over something and the fact that she’s showed me a lot of things to do that’s made my life easier.
Helen When Chris first moved out, he was moving into a situation with pretty much no routine and very little structure and it was very overwhelming for him. It became very evident very quickly that he needed something written down for him and so after talking with him about it, we decided to come up with a daily schedule, when to take meds, when he had time just for leisure just to relax so that he would know he’s got a routine.
[The focus shifts to a corkboard that has various papers pinned to it including a colorful, laminated daily schedule.]
Helen By about the second month, Chris identified a goal of wanting to work on his money, so we decided to worked on that together and came up with a plan for how to work on that.
[The camera shows a whiteboard hanging from a wall that Chris and Helen use to help Chris manage his finances. The whiteboard helps track his income, how much he spends on rent, and how much he spends on weekly expenses like groceries. Hanging below the whiteboard is a canvas pouch labeled “Receipts.”]
Chris The thing I love most about my new apartment is the fact that I know it’s mine and that I’m on my own again and I can have the privacy to do things that I could not do in the nursing homes.
[Chris is shown playing his guitar.]
Chris My future goals within the next year is to have my girlfriend move in with me and then on July 13th – not this year on her birthday but next year – getting married. It’s always better when you have a helping hand.
Denrique
Denrique My life when I moved out of the nursing facility, I was kind of happy that I got out of the nursing facility to get into my own place because it was my first time ever getting my place. When I was there in the nursing facility, I didn’t like it because it was like, not my own place. I’d wake up every day, you know, looking around, nothing to do, staying in the bed all the time, and it was a bad experience just being in there. I had a meeting and they told me that, “Well, you’re going to be getting ready to leave. You’re going to be going into a program,” and I was shocked because I didn’t think I was going to ever leave that nursing home.
Susan Thompson, LCSW, Behavioral Health Case Manager, Amerigroup
Susan A lot of these people would not have been able to move out of the nursing home without all of these supportive services that we’re providing for them and because we provide one year follow-up with a CAT therapist in the community, they really get stabilized. They get their doctors in order, they have transportation so they know how to get to and from the doctors’ appointments. Many of these people just could not manage in the community from a nursing home without this transitional period.
Denrique I wanted my life to change and I wanted myself better. Instead of having people take care of me, it was time to take care of myself.
[The camera shows Denrique sitting at a table with his CAT therapist Leah, looking at a book.]
Denrique Leah had brought me this cookbook, you know, to help me cook stuff and Leah had made this nutritionist chart where all the nutrition and all that, where I could write it down, you know, what I ate and what was good, what was healthy, what was not healthy.
[The camera moves to a whiteboard hanging on a wall. The whiteboard is used to help Denrique track his eating. There is a list of food groups with examples beneath each. For instance, the group “Veggies” includes carrots, broccoli, green beans, spinach, and corn. Below that is a list of meals with a description of what each meal included.]
Denrique Basically, she would help me get prepared to cook things that are healthy. They would have a class at the office and we would go there and we would always, you know, be doing different stuff, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own without Leah.
[The scene changes to one of Denrique cooking in his apartment while Leah watches and walks him through it.
Denrique I completed all of my goals that I wanted. I wanted my own apartment, I wanted my own space, I had always wanted to be on my own to see if I could do it. You know, it helped myself to learn how to pay bills and learn how to do different things on my own, how to be responsible, be patient, and just look at my life and I’m happy. I’m not sad anymore, I’m not depressed. I’m always, you know, waking up happy.
Maisie
Maisie When I lived in the nursing home, I felt confined. I felt like it wasn’t my time or place to be there. I was confined, I was limited, and I couldn’t live like that. I felt moving out would help me to grow, to be a better person. My son’s fears were “Who’s going to take care of you, mom? Who’s going to help you? On a day-to-day basis, something might come up.” The transition that I went through from the nursing home to my apartment was very swift and with the assistance of a lot of people working with me, helping me, I was able to move in in one day, unpacked and more or less put everything in place. My son was just amazed how well everything was coordinated, organized. Without the program helping me, to move from the nursing home to my apartment, would have been very difficult, would have been overwhelming.
Helen To see people not only move out successfully into the community from a nursing home but to stay in their home and to start to volunteer, to start to develop strong friendships and relationships with people, to fully engage in the community, to go back to class – is amazing. It’s a profound change that occurs and it’s so much more than just moving out of a nursing home and staying out in the community. It’s about fully engaging in the community, and this is a program that allows that to happen, and as a professional, as a mental health professional and social worker, it’s amazing to see that happen.
Maisie My social worker is the best person that I have met as far as helping me to relocate, to assist me to going back to college, and they work with me on a weekly basis just making sure that I’m okay with everything in life. The social worker has a lot of patience for me so that we can work on things together as a team. Without the program, I would have had a difficult time trying to sort out on my own. I always wanted to go back to school, I always wanted to continue my knitting, but I didn’t know how to go about it.
[The camera focus shifts to the apartment complex’s activity calendar. One of the activities listed there is “Maisie’s Knitting Round Up.”]
Maisie Through this experience, I have learned that there’s agencies out there that can help people make this transition from the nursing home to the community, and people need to be aware that there’s somebody that can help them. I have social workers, I have care takers, I have my independence. I am truly blessed to have agencies that back me up. My son was very worried that I wouldn’t have these things. He was opposed to the idea of me moving out and then on the day that I moved out, he posted on Facebook that he was proud of his mother for doing it all on her own.
[The Money Follows the Person logo]