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Though my mother passed, finding someone to drive to, wait, then drive her home to appointments was impossible. Home care said transportation was not part of home care. The services I did find were unreliable. Now my friends are asking the same question. Council on Aging had no answers. And because she was unpleasant, neighbors would not. Any suggestions?

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My mother uses call a bus in New York. My mother is above the income for Medicaid so she doesn’t qualify for that. All she needed was her doctor to say that she has trouble standing for long periods of time and can’t walk far. So her doctor signed it and mailed it to call a bus. It’s only 3.00 each way.
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I think the answer depends on where you live. Where I live, the area on aging does not have buses. They do not provide transportation. The city bus has a special service for seniors at a discounted rate but they will not sit and wait for you while you are at your appointmet. Medi-cal does not pay for taxis and there no medi-cal transportation providers in my county so I don’t know what people on medi-cal do if they don’t have transportation to their doctor appointments. If you can afford it, you can hire a private car through the limosine companies, there is one here that does advertise transportation to medical appointments. I have started seeing a small bus with seniors going to medical appointments on weekday mornings when I take my kids to school, the driver looks like a senior herself, it always goes to the medical offices by my house which is how I could tell it was for medical/dental appointments. I googled the name on the bus and it’s a transportation company in the Bay Area called Corinthian transportation. I am assuming that a senior center or assisted living has charted this bus because the website does not mention anything about providing medical transportation. We do have a community based transportation provider for seniors through ITN, ITN is nationwide, it’s transportation for seniors. It is not free but It is supposed to be “affordable”. However what’s affordable
to them may not be affordable to you. I do not know if they will stand by while you are at your appointment, their website doesn’t provide much information.

Home health care here doesn’t include transportation. IHSS caregivers will drive you around in your own car though. Personal care-which is bathing, grooming, meal prep and laundry does include transportation to doctors appointments but I don’t know if you have to have your own car or if they take you in the agency’s vehicle.
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In my area, in order of increasing cost, it's volunteers, public transportation and medical transport. The volunteers are free. Public transport is on a small single van or a shared bus depending on need. It cost the same as a regular bus ticket. The downside is that you have to be patient and allocate plenty of time for pickup on both ends. Plenty of time. Medical transport is the most expensive but the most convenient. For us, it's about $70-$100 per round trip within a 10 mile radius. The company we use is exactly on time on both ends. If we are ready early, they will show up early if possible. We just have to call.
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I hate to be the "wet blanket" here in regard to Send's comments, but if I did hire someone to drive my car, I'd be sure to add that person as an additional insured to my auto policy, so that if there were any accidents, coverage would apply.
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S
Sendhelp Oct 2019
Good point GA, being sure to check with the insurance company.
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This is not possible for everyone, but I have recommended to neighbors:
Keep your car as your abilities to drive decline, and hire a caregiver or neighbor to drive you.
A neighbor is more willing if they can take your car.
Many caregivers are not allowed to drive you in their own car.

The overall expense vs. NO RIDES! has not been calculated. But a paid for, good running older vehicle with low insurance premiums could work out.

Keep trying. Transportation is always going to be a challenge. Even in assisted living, promises of a transportation bus services were drastically reduced, and they would just drop you off.

Apply an unusual perspective to having the benefit of someone to drive for you.
Keeping the ability to be independent with a good driver is worth a whole lot, so reward a good driver accordingly. Expect changes to happen. People now hire limousine drivers for events, and it is more expensive. Call around, maybe a one time ride could be worth it.

Please do not shoot the messenger.
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Laugh. After that check Insurance
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There are options for simple transportation but finding someone who will wait through an appointment and provide assistance beyond dropping someone at the door are hard to come by. Years ago my mom tried a local service with "volunteer" drivers, but because they were compensated for mileage and there were no volunteers were in her neighbourhood it wasn't inexpensive. The degree that the volunteer was willing to assist beyond a simple ride also varied depending on the individual, my mom was visually impaired so she needed assurance that someone would get her in the building and to the waiting room. My solution was to book all her apts on my days off, other than that I think you would have to have deep enough pockets to pay for the extra service.
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Keeping up, did you use the search function?   If not, here are some hits that you can read to get more information:

https://www.agingcare.com/search?term=transporttion+for+elders

Public transportation in my experience is more reliable, whether contracted directly or used through Senior Centers.    I used Lyft one and would not use it again.  I think the driver was either an ex-race driver or was practicing to be one.   I wasn't sure I would make it to the appointment w/o her causing an accident.

Public transportation agencies require their employees to meet certain standards.  Allegedly Lyft and Uber do, but I certainly didn't see it.
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I believe that people on medicaid here are allowed to take a taxi to their appointments, but perhaps they've expanded which clients are eligible. I paid both private transport, & taxis, for my mother. But often they didn't show up! So frustrating indeed. Not sure if you have uber service there, but security has been a problem for their clients, & I wudnt trust them yet. Before ALF, mother rode in the van provided by her town, which worked great! It was nominal cost. Does your senior center have any answers 4u? Take care
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Our Office of Aging supplies a bus. People getting help with health insurance or homecare thru Medicaid can get transported.

Me, I looked at Moms dr visits. Some just follow ups. One was for bladder cancer she hadn't had come back in over 5 yrs. But her doctor was still having her come in for a scope every year at the age of 87/88. Since she had Dementia and was declining monthly, I saw no reason to put her thru that anymore. If she had gotten cancer again, there is no way would she be able to understand what she needed to do thru chemo.
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There are some Volunteer groups that will provide transportation.
I am a volunteer for a Hospice and they often have requests for a volunteer to drive someone to the store or to a doctor appointment, even to a vet or groomer.
If you are a member of a church or other religious group they may have a volunteer group that will do this.
There are medical transports that will also provide transportation.
I can understand why some people may not want to do this just because of liability, an unpleasant passenger is one thing the thought of an accident or someone getting hurt is another.
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The home care people for my mom did drive her to appointments when I couldn't. They always used my car. In my city there are also little buses that take the elderly places, but that doesn't work with dementia people. Even Uber and Lift wouldn't work in those cases. Someone has to be with the person during the appointment. Now the assisted living place will sometimes take a couple of ladies along on outings to the library or store, which is great, but always I make my mom's appointments when I can take her. This is a very good question you raise. What about volunteer services or have your friends call the senior center in your area for information.
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I hired a private aide at $15 an hour and she was willing to take my father to appointments. The downside was that she was hired for a specific day and time so appointments had to be made during her working hours with us. My father refused to hire her for another day but then expected her to be at his beck and call when he needed her. Could you hire a college student for one or two mornings a week and try to keep appointments to that time? If there were no appointments they could run errands or help with small chores.
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A consideration for those considering hiring from a home care agency is whther their caregivers can provide transportation. Ours can. You just have to pay a bit extra to cover the caregiver's mileage. What they can't provide, I presume, is someone to go in with the client while the doctor sees them. I think there are 2 problems. One of course is is the acual transport, lifiting scooters or wheelchairs, assisting the client, etc. The other is having someone be in the room during the doctor visit. Where we live there are agencies that transport elderly or handicapped people. They have vans equipped with lifts for wheelchairs, and the driver will take the person right in to their appointment and pick them up after. This obviously works only if the person has enough cognitive ability to be able to work with the doctor (give correct answers, understand what the dr. is saying, etc.).
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Keeping up, I know what you mean!

I cared for my in-laws for years and transportation was a challenge. The in-laws had so many appointments and I took them to almost all of them (30+ a year). When I complained about how much time it took, others would suggest having their friends take them or use Dial-a-Ride.

Of course, they weren't thinking that their friends are elderly also and couldn't handle getting the wheelchair in and out of the car. They had one male friend who could handle it but, understandably, my MIL wasn't comfortable with him helping her in the bathroom. He did take my FIL occasionally which was wonderful.

They also weren't aware that Dial-a-Ride can't accommodate a scooter and only drops the passenger at the curb. With lung cancer and emphysema, my FIL couldn't handle moving the wheelchair on his own.

Then, we also needed a family member at the appointment to know what the doctor said or, with some, to interpret his heavy accent. My MIL was terrible about only telling us what she wanted us to know. She had diabetes for 10 years before she told her family!

We did get to the point that my MIL qualified to have home health care come to the house to draw blood. That saved some time and effort for us.

The only suggestion I have is to post a flyer on the community board at local coffee houses, libraries, etc. Maybe post one at colleges, especially one that does health care classes. Perhaps, someone studying for a CNA certification would be interested in some side jobs. Of course, social media could be another resource.

I hope others have some better suggestions. Good luck!
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are you looking for free transportation? I'm not aware of anything, although the Red Cross had a service in my area for a very low fee of a few dollars each way. But they wouldn't wait, you'd have to call them when ready to go and pick up. As far as services that would wait on premises, you're going to have to pay. A companion agency would provide that along with a certain number of hours of In home companionship each week.
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Uber, Lyft, Taxi or use a county bus program, if there is one available.
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