May, 2024
Alex, 24, has Wilson’s disease, a condition similar to Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects motor functioning but not mental abilities. Though non-verbal, Alex can answer yes/no questions with the help of a communication board.
Alex had lived in nursing facilities in Siler City and Durham for almost two years after being an inpatient in an acute rehab hospital in Raleigh.
“I always wanted him to come home,” said his mother, Marianne, “but as he deteriorated more, it was difficult to care for him. I felt daunted and depressed to have him at the skilled nursing facility and not be able to have him home."
“I wanted to give him better care than the nursing home was able to give him. And it was wearing the family out going back and forth.”
MFP and the Wake County CAP/DA Waiver program helped Alex get the care he needed to move back home. Alex now lives in Pittsboro with his family and a caregiver who helps him with activities of daily living from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Marianne said the difference in Alex since leaving the facility is like “night and day.”
“He never really ‘lived’ in the nursing home,” she said. “Home is where he belongs. He would cry when he had to go back. And I don’t have to worry about him like I did when he lived in the nursing home. The caregiver is just a phone call away.”
Alex recently got an accessible van so he can get out into the community more often, and is currently looking into taking college courses.
“I just knew that he could not stay in the nursing home forever and I needed to do anything I could to get him home,” Marianne said. “MFP was the ticket!”
