CHOICES program is extremely pushy.

Tonight I received a call from the Choices representative. It was 7:30 PM and I was in the middle of working on an assignment for my class. She asked me if I was able to contact the person named Michael who runs the group home in Whitehaven.  I did call him after she left the other day and I did not get a response. His voicemail was full.  I also spoke with a representative from Riverdale, the assistant living home, and she was very nice, however their prices are nearly $3000 per month. Because we got a response back from the congressman, with hopes, I would like to make sure that wherever he goes, that it's going to be safe and a place that has his best interest at heart.  It feels to me as though it's a money issue or a funding issue. They are in such a rush to put him somewhere that isn't safe.  I was a little apprehensive getting the state involved in the situation at all, but I seriously thought that this was going to be something positive. And she specifically told me that there are no other options except for this one house print. Otherwise he would be forced to be admitted into a nursing home which would restrict his access, and he would be treated like a dying patient, they also said they would drug him if he got irate.  

I don't feel comfortable with the home in Whitehaven. Simply because if you are from Memphis, you would understand Whitehaven is a very high crime area. They also do not have gates around the house so he will not be protected. It's not a dementia care facility.

I do not like the urgency that they're placing on making a decision on where he needs to be. Especially with a program name choices, one would think there would be more choices than one halfway house for the elderly.  In addition, the choices program pays the facility $139. If he were to go into an assisted living place they would provide $1100. So the rent, cable, utilities, and food would be paid for out-of-pocket. Out of his pocket.  The total for that house would be $340 out of his $598 a month.

This also means that in addition to him going from where he is now, with us, to a place with strangers, where I would have to visit there at least once or twice a week to do his laundry, this just doesn't make any sense at all.

The representative also mentioned that if I don't make a decision with some rapid response, he may lose the program and not be able to apply for it again.  She is  referring to having a decision made prior to the first of November!   They also do not provide furniture which means we would have to buy furniture to go in the room that he would be living in. All of his furniture was lost when the bedbug situation at his old house was dealt with.

This also means that we would have to spend the holiday weekend of Halloween, moving furniture finding a truck to use, making sure that he has everything he needs down there etc.  

Last Christmas Eve, I spent the entire evening cleaning his house and fighting with the security guards at his Federal housing unit because they were refusing to let him bring a new mattress in. We got rid of the old mattress because it was infested with bedbugs. They were going to make us wait until that following Wednesday and my father would've been sleeping on the floor.  I spent the entire Christmas Day crying because of the stress and the frustration from everything. I don't want to spend another holiday fretting.