Hello everyone,
I just found this forum and it’s been so helpful. My brother is 27 years old and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. He lives in Florida and just was released from his third hospitalization in the past decade and with each episode things get worse for him. He’s taking medication now but without adequate support I don’t see him being able to sustain living independently… sometimes even just remembering to eat and drink during the day gets replaced by him getting sidetracked with things that seem very important to him at the time.
I would like him to come to Denver, CO where I live. His first choice is staying in Gainsville, FL but he’s open to Colorado.
I’m trying to walk with him through the process of signing up for Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc. It’s only been recently that I’ve been making enough money to be above poverty line myself and so the financial assistance I am able to give him is limited.
Can anyone recommend:
Doctors in Gainsville and Denver (who accept Medicaid or see patients on a sliding-scale fee basis)
Group housing options in Gainsville and Denver (again, would need a reduced cost basis)
Thank you SO so much for anything that you may be able to share! I’ve been searching the web and making phone calls and I am just exhausted and need help.
this is the way it has worked for me. I didn’t want to admit I was sick, but after I did, I found my cousin who is bi-polar and been hospitalized 9 times, she had a severe episode in Florida.
She had a severe episode in Florida and when she got out of the hospital there, she returned to Iowa, with only the clothes on her back, which she says was short, flip-flps and a t-shirt.
she applied for SSI and SSDI with the help of her psychologists. Applied for medicaid in the state where she was a resident (she returned to Iowa to be near her parents). She applied for IOwa Medicaid. After the 5 month waiting period for social security she was awarded SSI, SSDI and food stamps.
with the social security benefit back pay, she purchased a mobile home, and has lived there on SSI, SSDI and medicaid for the past 17 years.
She has coached me on what to do in my situation, and basicly, you do need to pick a place to live first, then applie for that state’s medicaid through the state’s public health department and get all the medical records and Drs to help with the SSDI.
once you apply for medicaid in the state where you are resident, they will send you the list of Drs and how ti works in that state, each state is different.
You might try contacting the mental health services for each area and asking for assistance from them. I have found case managers to be the most knowledgeable about housing options. Just try doing an internet search for something like ‘Community Mental Health Services Gainesville FL’ and start calling. If the first place isnt the right people to contact, they can help direct you until you get to someone knowledgeable.
A NAMI contact in each area might also be helpful.
Especially if your brother stays in FL, he would definitely benefit from having case management, who could help him with the local services, as well as Medicaid and other assistance.
Regarding group homes, they often will accept SSI, and then apply for grants, which cover the remaining costs.
I live in California but this might help. It might not. A few years ago I was seeing a therapist at a clinic for free because Medicare paid for all my visits there. But due to budget cuts in Social Services because of mistakes Schwarzenegger made Medicare would no longer cover my visits. So before my last visit my therapist gave me what is called a “master list”. It was a four page list of thirty or forty therapists, clinics, churches, private therapists, or other types of counselors who saw patients on a sliding scale for very cheap. I visited 5 or 6 of the people off of the list, one therapist saw me for $5.00 a visit! And when I was in a temporary Presidential Treatment Home for 5 months and it came time to leave the counselors there gave me a “master list” of every Board & Care home in the city. It was a 5 or 6 page document which listed at least 50 houses on it. I actually ended up in the house with the best reputation in the city and I stayed there for 5 years. But you see my point, right?
When I first got out of the hospital in 1982 my parents arranged for me to live in a beautiful Residential Treatment Home in a very affluent city. My only income was SSI, but I also had Medicaid (our states medical coverage for low income people). In order to live there it was required that each resident had to be seeing a psychiatrist. Not all psychiatrists accept Medicaid but the people running the home gave me a list of 10 or 15 psychiatrists in the area who took Medicaid for payment. But I finally found one. So if you could maybe make a few calls to clinics or other mental health related facilities or even private therapists or psychiatrists in your area, they might either have a list of what you are looking for or they might guide you to find a list elsewhere.
Thank you so much, everyone. This is really helpful. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughtful responses and experiences you’ve been through… I will follow up with what you suggested.