Caring Today Community -

• My Story

I am a live-in family caregiver for my disabled adult daughter (epilepsy, brain damage, etc.) and my elderly father (dementia, congestive heart failure, etc.), and I also take care of my daughter's two teenage boys. Therefore I speak with a lot of insight and compassion for all who find themselves in similar circumstances. It is a hard life, with long hours, and I do it not only for the obvious reason of love for my family, but because no one else can or will.

Live-in family member caregivers are paid very little or nothing at all. We keep our loved ones out of institutions at a very high cost in terms of time, energy, a personal life, and our own health and financial well being. I do take comfort in the knowledge that I am helping my family to stay together under one roof as long as possible, and I am providing them with the best quality of life that I can under these very challenging circumstances. I'm sure most of you out there do what you do for similar reasons.

My client/daughter is in a long-term care program for Medicaid recipients, and I am paid a small amount by the State of Washington to provide her with in-home care. All live-in family member caregivers in Washington whose disabled client/family member is in such a program, please contact me just as soon as you possibly can. There is good news for us at last. The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled in our favor on what is called "shared living," a concept that denied payment for many services that we routinely perform. Now we have hope of recovering some of those past lost wages. We are joining together by telephone and internet and word-of-mouth only, with no "personal appearances" required, to add our names to the list of those who are entitled to the same compensation that has been paid all along to others. Our stories need to be told, and only we can tell them.

Please contact me by email so that I can add your name to the growing list of Washington State live-in caregivers who may be eligible for wages denied to them in the past as a result of "shared living" deductions by the State of Washington.

I am Judy L. Alberts at Jlalberts03@comcast.net.