CNA anyone????

[colby'smommy]

We had to get a wavier called EDCD wavier and with it we have to have CNA for 30 hours aweek and with our private insurance we have a RN already. I cant stand it and today was our first day with her. a cna cant suction or due tube feedings. so having her makes my day harder. i couldnt even get my kitchen done this morning. Why would they have a cna for a trach kid. and to top it all off she left at 1045 to get some lunch she the sat on the couch and ate while my son was with me while i cleaned and she was watching soaps. and when he woke up from his nap she just left him in his crib while she watched tv. i was so mad. i did call the agency. and they will have a talk with her and contact me back with in 24 hours. i made a list of "ideas" for her to do with him while awake and for her to do while he is asleep and she did none of it . i am so over it..

have any of you had a CNA? if so what did you do?????

[Kaylie]

That doesnt sound right because a CNA isnt allowed to do any of the care involved with tracheostomy or tube feeding. who stated that u had to have one? you are entitled to a nurse, maybe not RN but at least a LPN. u should be able to get hours from EPSD and or medicaid and use the EDCD for other things. I cant remember r u on a vent?

[Kaylie]

when some of the medical conditions are gone i could see having a CNA , respite and so forth, but not now, especially not ever alone, they have no knowledge of trach or tube feeding and u are not allowed to show them. who is helping u with this stuff social service? how many hours do you get with private insurance? how many do you really need to have total?

[colby'smommy]

Colby is only on vent at night with Cpap. With priv insurance we only. Get 40 now they couldn't staff the othe 40 so insurance took it away. We have the EDCD because our max was met for med. Supplies and hospital stays. DMAS is helping us with it. THe edcd wavier is ment for the elderly not for Babys I wish their was some thing else we could do

[Big Al]

That all sounds about useless both the concept of having a cna for q
trach kid and the cna herself. Good luck. Arnt you elligable for Medicare? Also I would lean on the privet insurance to get you hours back. This cna thing can't work long term unless they can learn and proform the skills necessary for the trach. What does the agency say about this whole cna thing? Have other families in your state done this sucessfuly? I'm just kind of scratching my head thing "who's bright idea was this mess" ah government programs don't ya love them.

[MRSJOH]

what that does sound useless, just the kindof thing our system would implement....

I have no idea why they would do that???

[KJKK8437]

Originally Posted by colby'smommy

We had to get a wavier called EDCD wavier and with it we have to have CNA for 30 hours aweek and with our private insurance we have a RN already. I cant stand it and today was our first day with her. a cna cant suction or due tube feedings. so having her makes my day harder. i couldnt even get my kitchen done this morning. Why would they have a cna for a trach kid. and to top it all off she left at 1045 to get some lunch she the sat on the couch and ate while my son was with me while i cleaned and she was watching soaps. and when he woke up from his nap she just left him in his crib while she watched tv. i was so mad. i did call the agency. and they will have a talk with her and contact me back with in 24 hours. i made a list of "ideas" for her to do with him while awake and for her to do while he is asleep and she did none of it . i am so over it..

have any of you had a CNA? if so what did you do?????

You can use the fact that you are in the program now to get real nursing care from the EPSDT waiver, as Kathy said.

The EDCD waiver does not require you to use a personal attendant, although that is one way you can work with it. You can get an LPN to provide pure respite care for your child. This is the one waiver program in VA that allows you to plead YOUR needs and not your child's, under the theory that without respite assistance, you cannot continue to care for your child and will need to institutionalize him. (Whether you would or not, that is the theory of the waiver.)

This waiver is confusing, but if you are using it, then I presume this was your on-ramp to the Medicaid program. If it's your only way, then it's a great program. (I presume you checked with the tech waiver, first? That one is a little bureacratically easier to manage.)

As we understood it, the trick to the EDCD waiver is that you use some of the hours you are entitled to. You do not need to use all of them. When we first applied for the program, we used 10 hours of respite a week. Later, when we were struggling with our respite agency and needed to let them go, we decided not to replace them and to switch to self-directed care where we hired our own personal attendant for Alex. (True, the attendant is not paid for suctioning or doing any other medical care for your child. If you want to talk a bit about this, and how we found it worked and was monitored, why don't we set up a time to talk on the phone.)

We had the respite care in addition to our nursing, at first, like you do. Then our day nursing got cut, and we decided to just work with a nanny during the daytime. (Our insurance paid nursing had a clause that they were not to be left alone with Alex, so we had to have the nanny there anyway.) Then, when we ran into the respite problem, and we switched to self-directed with a personal attendant, we had the nanny hired as our attendant. The paperwork for doing this is a royal pain in the you-know-what, but the freedom for us of having someone we knew and who was invested in Alex was waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy worth it. We were told we could hire my mom or DH's dad. In fact, we were advised to hire three, but we never did.

My total understanding of how this program works is not always crystal clear, but I do know this -- there are two different ways to do it (at least). You can go the personal attendant route, or you can get skilled respite nursing care. I also have found out that the regional coordinators/employees at Medicaid do not understand this program all that well, and our file was put up for review once because we were using an attendant and NOT a nurse. Our agency that coordinated the application with us said that this happens in our area and we should not worry. Nothing came of it.

Well, this is all jumbled. I'm not sure I helped, and I don't have much time to rewrite. I'll be out of pocket for a few days starting tonight, but I can be available by cell phone if you want to talk.

[LittleBee]

We have this same situation, but don't have to have many hours. The minimum we could take was 3 (1 time a week). So that is what we do. I do hate having the extra "appointment", but it is worth it for the medicaid coverage. And finally after a year and 4 other carers we have one that I love. She is great with Luke and when he is eating or sleeping she helps me with things around the house. None of the other carers played with him - they just wanted to talk to me - some "respite".

You have already gotten a lot of great suggestions, but here are a couple of thoughts I had - here you can have someone help with housework (any rooms or things the child regularly uses), would that work for you? I would check and make sure 30 hours is the minimum you have to accept. Since the CNA can't be alone with Colby could you have her there with the nurse instead of you?

Hope you get it figured out! I agree that having someone there who isn't helping you is much worse than being alone.

[Kaylie]

Originally Posted by KJKK8437

You can use the fact that you are in the program now to get real nursing care from the EPSDT waiver, as Kathy said.

The EDCD waiver does not require you to use a personal attendant, although that is one way you can work with it. You can get an LPN to provide pure respite care for your child. This is the one waiver program in VA that allows you to plead YOUR needs and not your child's, under the theory that without respite assistance, you cannot continue to care for your child and will need to institutionalize him. (Whether you would or not, that is the theory of the waiver.)

This waiver is confusing, but if you are using it, then I presume this was your on-ramp to the Medicaid program. If it's your only way, then it's a great program. (I presume you checked with the tech waiver, first? That one is a little bureacratically easier to manage.)

As we understood it, the trick to the EDCD waiver is that you use some of the hours you are entitled to. You do not need to use all of them. When we first applied for the program, we used 10 hours of respite a week. Later, when we were struggling with our respite agency and needed to let them go, we decided not to replace them and to switch to self-directed care where we hired our own personal attendant for Alex. (True, the attendant is not paid for suctioning or doing any other medical care for your child. If you want to talk a bit about this, and how we found it worked and was monitored, why don't we set up a time to talk on the phone.)

We had the respite care in addition to our nursing, at first, like you do. Then our day nursing got cut, and we decided to just work with a nanny during the daytime. (Our insurance paid nursing had a clause that they were not to be left alone with Alex, so we had to have the nanny there anyway.) Then, when we ran into the respite problem, and we switched to self-directed with a personal attendant, we had the nanny hired as our attendant. The paperwork for doing this is a royal pain in the you-know-what, but the freedom for us of having someone we knew and who was invested in Alex was waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy worth it. We were told we could hire my mom or DH's dad. In fact, we were advised to hire three, but we never did.

My total understanding of how this program works is not always crystal clear, but I do know this -- there are two different ways to do it (at least). You can go the personal attendant route, or you can get skilled respite nursing care. I also have found out that the regional coordinators/employees at Medicaid do not understand this program all that well, and our file was put up for review once because we were using an attendant and NOT a nurse. Our agency that coordinated the application with us said that this happens in our area and we should not worry. Nothing came of it.

Well, this is all jumbled. I'm not sure I helped, and I don't have much time to rewrite. I'll be out of pocket for a few days starting tonight, but I can be available by cell phone if you want to talk.

Ok here is some more info, i couldnt write everything i wanted because i had a emergency but things are ok now. anyway, most of the social service employees are pretty clueless when it comes to the waiver programs for the most part, (they do have high turnover rates at ss) some employees have never even been told about them. so given that you will not get all the adequate info that you need. from what i know you can be on one waiver while waiting for another one to have a slot available, that is a fact. 2. you are eligible for the tech waiver which has no waiting list , and it goes by points, with that waiver you can get nursing hours , medical supplies, hospital and doc care and so forth, sometimes within the waiver itself they use EPSD for somethings like nursing and so forth. (who is your nursing agency, they too should be able to help with this) I do have a contact name who does the tech waiver if you are interested. I have always been told that a CNA is not allowed to care for a child with such needs, and u shouldnt have to use one unless of course u want too. again some waivers have waiting list and you can be put on the waiting list and still be on another waiver, also when you are on a waiver you automatically get enrolled in straight medicaid versus the other crap they have. i dont remember all of your little ones diagnosis its possible that you may qualify for the MR waiver and if you do get on the waiting list as soon as possible, because that is the best waiver and its one of the longest waiting list. you can pull up the waivers on the website and if you have any questions feel free to pm me or call me and i will help u, again ss is not going to be as helpfull as you think, if you want to find out everything about something to help your little one its best u get help from us and with info from what you find on the sites i mentioned because you will just be in one viscous cycle. if i were u this is what i would suggest
1, go on the website and check the info about each and every waiver and see what u feel best fits your babies needs
2.if you have to be on a waiver then i would use the tech waiver along with EPSD for nursing , supplies, docs, therapies and so forth, again no waiting list for the tech waiver
3. then i would see what waiver fits the best if its the MR waiver then i would apply now. slots only become availabe when someone passes away, someone moves out of the state, the general assembly allocates new slots which is only every so many years(I think 4 or something like that)This waiver will help you immensely if you qalify. it does not go by your income.
i have plenty more info if you need it. i hope this helps

[colby'smommy]

Originally Posted by Kaylie

Ok here is some more info, i coudltn write everything i wanted because i had a emergency but things are ok now. anyway, most of the social service employees are pretty clueless when it comes to the waiver programs for the most part, (they do have high turnover rates ar ss) some employees have never even been told about them. so given that you will not get all the adequate info that you need. from what i know you can be on one waiver while waiting for another one to have a slot available, that is a fact. 2. you are eligable for the tech waiver which has no waiting list , and it goes by points, with that waiver you can get nursing hours , medical supplies, hospital and doc care and so forth, sometimes within the waiver itself they use EPSD for somethings like nursing and so forth. (who is your nursing agency, they too should be able to help with this) I do have a contact name who does the tech waiver if you are interested. I have always been told that a CNA is not allowed to care for a child with such needs, and u shouldnt have to use one unless of course u want too. again some waivers have waiting list and you can be put on the waiting list and still be on another waiver, also when you are on a waiver you automatically get enrolled in straight medicaid versus the other crap they have. i dont remember all of your little ones diagnosis its possible that you may qualify for the MR waiver and if you do get on the waiting list as soon as possible, becasue that is the best waiver and its one of the longest waiting list. you can pull up the waivers on the website and if you have any questions feel free to pm me or call me and i will help u, again ss is not going to be as helpfull as you think, if you want to find out everything about something to help your little one its best u get help from us and with info from what you find the sites i mentioned because you will just be in one viscous cycle. if i were u this is what i would suggest
1, go on the website and check the info about each and every waiver and see what u feel best fits your babies needs
2.if you have to be on a waiver then i would use the tech waiver along with EPSD for nursing , supplies, docs, therapies and so forth, again no waiting list for the tech waiver
3. then i would see what waiver fits the best if its the MR waiver then i would apply now. slots only become availabe when someone passes away, someone moves out of the state, the general assembly allocates new slots which is only every so many years(I think 4 or something like that)This waiver will help you immensely if you qalify. it does not go by your income.
i have plenty more info if you need it. i hope this helps

what is the website?