Focus On Mexico And Lake Med Center Go the Extra Mile for Our Participants
By Kristina Morgan
Occasionally at Focus on Mexico we have requests to help our
participants with special needs while they are with us on the program and we
make it our business to go the extra mile because we genuinely care. We live
here too, so our participants become our friends and we believe in taking care
of the people who come through Focus on Mexico.
So when Glenn Dusky got in touch with me, he related that he wanted to attend
the Focus week but that his wife Kit has dementia and since she would be coming
with him, she would need care during the program while he was in the seminars.
I had a challenge before me to find the best and most affordable care I could.
I called Lidia Zamudio, the owner of Lake Med Center. Lidia has been a nurse for the
past 30 years. She is an RN with a specialty as a surgical nurse and has had
training in oncology, pain control and urology nursing. She also had the
solution to our challenge, because she runs a private nurse referral program of
20 nurses, 30% of whom are registered nurses and the rest, nursing students who
will be completing registration. Ten per cent of them also speak English. Another
benefit for us was that Lidia also provides transportation for her nurses and
assistants to their assignment destinations.
Lidia assured me she could help and she also went the extra
mile with her choice of caregivers! Kit was taken care of by Alex, a nurse who
speaks fluent English and also has a lot of experience caring for patients with
dementia and Alzheimers.
Glenn says, “The care Kit received was excellent. Alex was
so caring and attentive to Kit's needs that sometimes I felt guilty because I don’t
feel that I am that good about caring for her!”
The cost for a
private nurse
How much do you think it costs to hire a private nurse who
speaks fluent English and specializes in dementia and Alzheimer’s patients? How
much would it cost where you’re from?
The truth is that hiring a nurse as skilled as the one we
found for Kit would be prohibitively expensive in the U.S., which is why many people are looking at
the private health care in Mexico
as yet another reason to consider a move to Lake Chapala.
In the U.S.,
the average cost of a home health care nurse is 32.37 USD average per hour, but
could go up to as much as $50 USD per hour. In Mexico you can hire a home health
nurse for just $65 pesos or $5.25 USD an hour or possibly less if you arrange
to have them come on fixed days instead of just a temporary situation as we
arranged for Kit.
Glenn says, “The cost for the nurse was amazing. It would cost me that much
for just one eight-hour day in Oregon as it
did for the entire week here in Lake
Chapala.”
Glenn adds, “Unfortunately it will not be that long before she needs someone
to be with her all the time. That means I will either have to hire someone to
be with her or quit my job to care for her if we remain in Oregon. The problem with that is that the
cost of care in Oregon
is more then I make at my job. So it is the proverbial rock-and-hard-spot
situation; either way we go makes it financially challenging.
“I am currently planning on reducing my work hours to the minimum that I
have to work to get health insurance. Private health insurance for us would
cost over $1000 a month. In Mexico
the cost of insurance and health care is so much less that we could actually
live on what we have coming in right now.”
Seventy-Eight percent of seniors prefer to receive long-term
care at home, according to the 2009 Genworth Financial survey. Very few of them
can afford it though. In Mexico
it’s feasible and the bonus is that Mexico is a country based on family
and integrating every generation into their lives. The elderly here are cared
for with warmth, patience and respect.
If you don’t need a private nurse and just need someone to look in on you
now and then or spend time with you and help with certain things that have
become more difficult as you age, then a companion may be what you need. Homemakers
or companions in the U.S.
are $17 USD on average per hour. In Mexico
you can hire a homemaker/companion for $2-$5 USD per hour. That type of care is
perfect for people who want to be independent and don’t have the medical needs
that require the expertise of a part- or full-time nurse.
When asked what he would do differently if he knew five years ago what he
knows now, Glenn said, “I wish no one else had to make these kinds of
decisions, but I would have started down-sizing and making plans for the future
as soon as we got the diagnosis… while my wife still had much of her cognitive
ability. Having her input and help in decisions is so important. If I had done
that then, moving to Mexico
or wherever would be much easier and the stress of trying to liquidate things
and make the necessary decisions would be greatly reduced.”
Glenn says, “I think Focus on Mexico is a valuable and
necessary tool for anybody considering a move to Mexico. Paulette, Ana, Liz, Tere
and all of you at Focus on Mexico went out
of your way to get Kit where she needed to be when she needed to be there. The
Focus staff was amazing and I appreciate all your excellent assistance. We
could not ask for anything more.”
Thanks Glenn! Knowing you and Kit has been a bright spot in
our lives, too! We were all impressed by Glenn’s adoration and attentiveness of
Kit and that he wanted to be with her and include her as much as possible
during the Focus program. We hope to have you back here someday!
Also, heartfelt thanks from Focus
on Mexico
to Lidia and Alex at Lake
Med Center
for your warm and professional care for Kit. We couldn’t have asked for
anything more, either! You gave us one more reason to be proud that we live in Mexico.
If you would like to contact Lake Med Center, they also have medical equipment
such as:
- Portable oxygen tanks
- Wheelchairs
- Nebulizers
- Hospital beds
- Medical supplies
In Ajijic, call 766-2088 (From the U.S. or Canada
dial: 011-52-376-766-2088) or the cell phone number in Guadalajara is 333-156-9080 or 333-157-9387
Note: Mexican costs are from a
survey of facilities in five cities.
Sources: MetLife Mature Market Institute; Mexico's
National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information Processing; U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; USA TODAY research
http://www.videojug.com/interview/costs-of-home-care-2
Kristina Morgan: Director of Public Relations for FocusOnMexico.
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