Author: Linda Ershow-Levenberg

There comes a time in everyone’s life that they are slowing down in one way or another. Even the baby boomers are starting to face this. You may be working less — driving less — going out at night less often due to visual problems — avoiding large stores and shopping malls and shifting to smaller venues that are easier to navigate — and reducing the amount of...

I recently read a book I wish I had written myself. It’s called How to Care for Aging Parents (3rd Edition) by Virginia Morris, and was published by Workman Press in its most recent update in 2014. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is stepping up to the plate to assist a parent in later life when physical frailty or dementia are the primary causes for concern. The child often...

Today is “Purple Thursday” within Domestic Violence Awareness month. It’s been about 40 years since the taboo subject of conjugal crime and battering were brought out of the shadows and onto the table for public discussion. A small group of women (including myself) worked in a small network of shelters around the state and did our best to assist victims to get protective...

If a person is disabled  and cannot  support themselves, they may  need the support of government benefits over the long term to help with costs of housing, health insurance, transportation, residential services, and home health aides. If they then receive assets through a personal injury settlement, the impact of the settlement on their eligibility for benefits must be taken into account....

When an application for Medicaid benefits is filed with a County Board of Social Services in New Jersey, it may be many months before the applicant hears back from the caseworker who is processing the application. If the applicant is in a nursing home or is suffering with Alzheimers Disease or other dementias it is crucial that they have a representative such as a family member, agent under...

Back on May 29-30 I participated in the 3rd World Congress on Adult Guardianship in Arlington VA and followed up with blog posts about alternative approaches to guardianship around the world. Supported Decision-Making is a concept that is gaining traction in many places and certainly deserves careful consideration here in New Jersey. It’s more complicated than merely entering an...

You know by now that the New Jersey Department of Human Services has been developing a new Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) program under its 2013 Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver. It’s still a work-in-progress. This program affects all elderly and disabled Medicaid applicants and Medicaid recipients who need  long-term care Medicaid services outside of nursing homes. Three...

I previously posted about the upcoming changes to the New Jersey Medicaid programs that pay for nursing home care and home and community-based services (HCBS) for people whose gross monthly income exceeds $2,163. This amount was formerly called the “income cap,” and people in that group could only receive Medicaid benefits in nursing homes. That was under the “Medically...

The New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a decision that will be very helpful to disabled children of retired NJ police and firefighters, called Saccone v Board of Trustees of the Police and Firemen’s Retirement  System (9/11/2014), http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-supreme-court/1677772.html Under the rules for the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (PFRS), upon the death of a...

It is axiomatic that aged individuals would prefer to remain in the comfort of their familiar surroundings rather than finish their lives in an institutional setting. This is the case whether the person lives in a mansion or a little apartment, in a house with their beloved  front porch or a home with their comforting tiny living room or sunny little back yard. Federal initiatives exist that...