Family written agreement for care
Family written agreement for care
Initially, the thought is, “Hey, we’re family and we don’t need a written agreement. This is our own mother we’re talking about!” But, when you think about it, this is a very important project. A written agreement will do wonders.
- provides opportunities for everyone to broaden their ideas about care needs,
- opens possibilities for respite care for the upfront person providing care,
- fosters cash contributions from family members,
- invites fairness of contributions despite the differences in circumstances, and
- generally promotes the core idea that everybody is in a single group with a focused task.
Getting Started:
This agreement can go by many names; a family care contract, a personal care agreement, an elder care contract, and personal services contract, or a family care agreement.
It is a written agreement between a person or persons providing care and the care recipient. Most often, they are between family members, such as an elderly parent and their adult child, however, it is not required that the two individuals be related.
It allows a family to conserve its combined energies and resources for application to the task at hand – supporting in the best ways possible the long-term care needs of a loved one.
It also opens up every possibility for locating and securing needed help from every available source. This works best with full and open cooperation from everyone involved as a concerted and tightly-focused team. Good research will be needed, along with good information-handling, and good recordkeeping.
A third objective is a financial one. Care agreements are particularly important if an elderly individual might apply for Medicaid. Because Medicaid has an asset limit (for most states this is around $2,000), the Care Agreement verifies that funds were not gifted during the “look back” period, which goes back 5 years. Medicaid could consider any payments to an informal caregiver as a gift, which will violate the look-back rule. This Care Agreement legitimizes the reason for payments.
Just the formation of this agreement and reducing it to writing is highly instructive to all concerned. Each modification will be an opportunity to review the size and scope of each family member’s contribution to care, which can create an effort by some or all to do more. And, if one must withdraw for whatever reason, or no reason, filling the gap will be less likely to prove so disruptive.
A fantastic resource for drafting a written care agreement can be found on this site.
Some Insights:
Do you need a professional? To get started, no. However, you may want to consult with an attorney on specific things to include in your agreement and how to make it airtight for future Medicaid and/or VA Benefit considerations.
What does a Family Care Agreement look like?
The format should be clear and concise. It should lend itself to consider modifications without hesitation as the situation changes, which it most definitely will.