I am a 24 year old recent college graduate with two younger brothers. One in the army stationed in New York. The other is 18 and has cerebral palsy. He can't walk, or talk and can't see very well. He basically has the mental capacity of a 1 year old. He also has very little control over his body. He can bring himself to his hand and knees as well as sit up but he can't crawl. At the most he can grab a cup with a lid and feed or give himself a drink.
Currently he lives with my mom only. My parents are divorced and live about an Hour and a half from each other. For about a year now my mom has been relatively unemployed, I say relatively because she does have a job but it pays irregularly and it costs more for her to perform the job than it pays.
What I'm getting really worried about is her getting support for my brother. She's a social worker by profession and has tried every outlet possible to get aid for him. At the most she's able to get a months supply of diapers for free. He recently also became eligable for social security aid but the government says he is only able to get $86 a month for the rest of his life. And this is money he's expected to live off of on a monthly basis if he were to ever live in a home with 24 hour care. No one can live off $86 a month including rent/utilities/food/diapers. But something HAS to be done, my mom can't take care of him forever, and she has been doing it alone essentially for the past 10 years. Social Security said that $225 of what my mom makes is suppose to go towards taking care of my brother which is why they are only giving her $86 per month for my brother out of the max $600 something.
My dad does help take care of him, but its only every other weekend he goes to dads house. I've told my mom several times to have my brother live there but she won't do it. I only recently found out its because she's using part of my dads child support to pay her mortgage on the house.
My mom suffers from severe depression, extreme loneliness, social anxiety, as well as having problems with alcohol and lives below the poverty line. Because her "job" is strictly contract work she has no health insurance and can't afford to see a doctor otherwise. She's 55 years old and last week had to get a job as a delivery driver for a chinese restaurant. That only lasted 3 days before she was fired for no reason.
She told me she can't get government help because she's too old for medicare and has too much money for medicaid. Although she'll be completely broke by the time the years over if this keeps up. She can't get another job because no one wants to hire her when they know there will be times she has to leave work to take care of my brother or leave early to be home when he gets off the bus from school. So she's basically stuck in this situation with no way out. She needs a job, but can't because she has my brother, but can't give him to my dad because without the child support she'll be homeless.
There has to be some form of help out there. I've tried suggesting every type of program i can find to her and she's either tried it or doesn't qualify for it. She can't afford a babysitter either because she can't find anyone willing or qualified to take care of my brother, and the one place that will take him is $25 an hour...which she doesn't have.
Something has to be done, my mom can't keep living like this! I'm getting so frustrated and everything feels hopeless at this point. ↓
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