I live in Louisiana and I am trying to find out about getting help from the state. Any suggestions?

Here's a good place to start: https://www.agingcare.com/local/Area-Agency-on-Aging#LA

LSU fan- for Louisiana the choices are pretty limited. Jindal's administration has pretty well gutted a lot of programs or privatized others.The closing of the mental health hospital on the NorthShore is classic Jindal. Don't get me started on that rant.

But I digress... For come into your house and provide caregiving probably the easiest way to get any assistance is to have either of your grandparents qualify for hospice. Hospice is a MediCARE benefit, so it is federal. You can select the hospice provider too (and switch if they don't work out as it is a Medicare benefit and self-directed). Now what hospice does is limited, maybe 3 times a week but they will bathe and do health monitoring. Hospice will also bring in equipment to make things easier, like a specialized bed & mattress and gerichairs for bathing or sitting. All paid for by Medicare. Hospice does not do 24/7 caregiving. If they are living at home, then hospice fully expects family or other paid home health workers to come in to deal with things for the rest of the time. For hospice, first you need to clearly speak with their MD's to see if the doc will write orders for a hospice consult. Both their MD and the hospice MD will have to agree that hospice is needed before they can get it. If family is doing caregiving, hospice will pay for "respite care" for the elder in a facility every few months too. So you can get a break of a few days from caregiving. There is a NH in NOLA that specializes in taking the respite hospice benefit (Ferncrest)

Some areas have the PACE program. It seems to be very good. I'd google to see if there is one in your area and contact them directly.

For at home caregiving, basically you are expected to private pay for it. They get a SS check and it's expected for them to use that and their savings to pay for whatever home health they need. Or family does it for free.

When that runs out & the family caregivers just can't take it anymore, they can go into a NH. NH qualification in LA seems to be pretty minimal. My late MIL was in a NH in NOLA and there were overwhelmingly ladies at her NH who would be considered only AL in other states but totally OK for NH Medicaid in LA. MIL was one of those too. My hubby did the Medicaid for his mom and the caseworker was very helpful. The caseworkers are assigned to specific NH too so that makes it easier. When hubs did the initial paperwork with MIL bank statements, the caseworker looked it over and gave all back to him and said something like "I'm not going to take the application, it is not going to go into the system. What you need to do son is go asap and spend down her bank account so that her next months bank statement shows she is totally under the Medicaid limits. If I take the application now she will be declined and that is a whole series of documents that will need to be filed and will delay her acceptance by months". Hubs saw him at the NH the next week and he told hubby, "you spent that $$ yet son?" Too funny. Now after dealing with Medicaid for my mom in TX, I totally get what the LA caseworker was getting at. He was making his work life & my MIL situation easier by not taking my MIL's application initially.

My experience with NH in the NOLA area is that the good ones do not ever take Medicaid. It is all private pay. St Anna's & Poydras Home are wonderful and they are totally private pay with a fiduciary contract done; about 10K mo. Woldenberg on the WB is also great and a tiered care situation - I think does some Medicaid beds for the NH part. Often for those that take Medicaid, the # of beds are limited and there is a waiting list. The waiting list approach is used by a lot of places and it seems the list is that current private paying residents are on page 1 of the waiting list. (once their name moves to # 1 or #2 they apply for Medicaid) You can add your name but it is unlikely you will ever get to be "next". Catholic Charities has some residential care situations - there's Christopher Inn (3 or 4 of them - the one on Carrollton is especially nice; the one in the Marigny is tiny dorm room size) and then the new Benson complex in Bywater. These are mixed use situation and they need to be able to do their ADL's. But they are lower cost.

For NH that take Medicaid in NOLA, the choices are limited scary since Katrina. (My MIL's old NH did not reopen after Katrina) You'll find better places the further from NOLA. I have heard that New Iberia & St Martinville area has good, established & well staffed AL & NH. This is where the Area Agency on Aging will come in handy. AoA is paid by your tax $ too so use them.

btw we are a house divided & have tickets for death valley!GeauxHottyToddy!