I have so many mixed emotions regarding the decision to go agency instead of  Consumer Direct.

I became part of Consumer Direct when I was place in the situation to take care of my elderly mom as she was going through the stage of dementia and my sister who is Down Syndrome. After awhile I decided to go Agency.. This was the biggest mistake of my Life for these reason. The frustrating level the agency put you through while you trying to take care of your love one is unreal. 

• The signing in and out process
• The inability to travel with your love one because the locator on your phone to check in and out
• The lack of pay, because the agency receives the majority of the funding to handle their overhead while the family member do all the work.
• The frustrating level the family go through answering to an agency regarding their family member is unreal, i.e why are you late signing in and out, why isn’t this or that summit in in a timely manner. It goes on and on.                                                           I went back to Consumer Direct after awhile because it put me at ease with taking care of my family member without someone in my ear. Consumer Direct gives one the flexibility when the family member live with you to sign in and out. One have the option to sign in daily or to sign in every two week. No one is calling you every day questioning you.
• Let me not forget about the direct care of your love one. No one know your family member better then you do. ( Short story) 2 years ago my sister was sent home from the hospital NPO, with a big bed soar in her rear that was infected where you can see her bone. She had one to two weeks to live. She is still alive two years later and her ball seize soar is closed. With the care of me working on her around the clock. I am not able to leave her or my mom in the care of someone else and get a full time job because they would not get the intense care needed. My sister didn’t get the proper care in the hospital what makes one think that they would get the proper care with someone else being their caregiver.  Therefore placing the family member into agency is not the right move to make for the family it places restrictions and dictatorship.  Taking away respite time is really unfair to the family because it gives the family and extra two hours a day to help with the cost of taking care of the family member based on how many hours allowed for regular daily care. Like I said in the beginning of my statement I have so many emotions and I can go on and on regarding the transfer to an agency but I don’t want to bore the reader with more and more.  However,  I can say that I am speaking from experiencing both.
  Please reconsider DMAS Action proposal for the sake of the families.                          Thanks for reading this!    
  Barbara