Chip Jasmin’s Alzheimer’s Care Fund
Donation protected
Thank you so much for visiting Chip Jasmin’s GoFundMe page! We feel pretty awkward in this position, but we’ve had a lot of friends ask how they can help. Sadly, we’re at a point where we can’t, in good conscience, put our friends in a position to directly care for Chip, primarily because the situation is no longer safe due to Chip's propensity for combative emotional outbursts, and of course due to circumstances surrounding COVID-19. At this point, we only feel comfortable requesting physical help from professional caregivers who are trained to safely deal with the situation. This level of care is enormously expensive, so the greatest support we could receive (other than emotional support!) is financial. And so, here we are! (Read on for more details...)
THE NUMBERS
We felt that — if we were going to ask our community for this level of help — we owed it to you to provide a breakdown of potential costs for us over the next year, detail how we would use whatever funds we gathered, and be as transparent as possible about our own situation. To that end...
FACILITY COSTS (for Hamilton, MT)
Assisted Living Memory Care Unit: ~$4,200/month
Skilled Nursing/Long-term Care: ~$8,000/month
ANTICIPATED CARE NEEDS**
(until eligible for Medicaid in April 2021)
In-home care for 2 months: ~$3,500
Assisted Living (Memory Care) for 6 months: ~$25,500
Skilled Nursing for 4 months: ~$32,000
Attorney Fees for Medicaid application process: ~$5,000
TOTAL: ~$66,000
**This is of course all based on our somewhat arbitrary estimates of how long Chip will be in which type of care situation, so it could end up costing a bit less or a lot more than these estimates.
We are doing everything we can to bring more income into our home through increased hours at our jobs and additional gigs on the side, but there’s a stark limit to what we’re able to generate ourselves in our current circumstances. We plan to use all of the funds generated through this campaign to pay directly for Chip’s care, whether it be writing a check to an in-home caregiver, to an assisted living facility, or to a lawyer who's helping us apply for Medicaid.
THE BACKSTORY
Chip Jasmin (Cove’s father and my soon-to-be father-in-law) is a well-known and widely beloved musician and teacher. He travelled around Montana for 30 years, teaching thousands of schoolchildren about history and culture through song and dance. He was also a fiddler and multi-instrumental folk musician who deeply loved and invigorated the local Irish music scene in Missoula and the Bitterroot, helping to facilitate countless jam circles and contra dances for his cherished friends and community. He was also a loving father to Cove and husband to Amy Dittmaier, his wife and Cove’s mother, who passed away in 2001 from cancer.
In 2015, Chip was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. It has been a relatively slow progression overall, but as many of you know, this disease is wildly unpredictable. Cove and I poured our own resources into renovating a small barn into an apartment on his family property in Hamilton, Montana. We then moved into that barn apartment last June (2019), so that we could be here to spend time with and care for Chip, knowing he was becoming less independent. For the rest of 2019, we were able to manage Chip’s care primarily by ourselves, with the help of one part-time caregiver who spent ~10 hours with Chip each week, providing companionship and helping him with basic daily activities like preparing meals, bathing, doing some light cleaning, etc. But in mid-January, Chip’s condition took a sudden and dramatic downturn, leading us into a new phase of him needing almost constant supervision and care.
In response to these changes, we dramatically increased our original caregiver’s hours and also hired a second caregiver, along with a few friends and volunteers, to fill the gaps in the schedule when Cove and I needed to be at work. Then, a global pandemic hit, and we went back to being Chip’s nearly full-time caregivers as we’ve taken a hit to our income (like many people!).
OUR CURRENT SITUATION
During these last couple months, Chip’s condition has continued to deteriorate, and we fear we’re reaching the limits of our ability to care for him without putting him and ourselves in constant emotional distress and actual physical danger. With the aggression and violent outbursts (lesser known but very common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease) on the rise, Cove has become the only caregiver who’s capable of dealing with Chip in his agitated state, and as such, the burden has shifted almost entirely to his shoulders. As businesses open and the potential for returning to our regular work schedules becomes a reality, we are faced with a complicated decision regarding Chip’s care and our own abilities to make a living. After months and months of research, conversations with professionals, and private deliberation, we feel that the best thing for Chip and for us and his caregivers is to find a way to get him into a more stable environment — an assisted living facility — where he can benefit from consistent routine and compassionate care.
Our main concern with this potential move is the possibility of a sudden and rapid decline, which can result from drastically changing a dementia patient’s environment (i.e. taking them out of their home). If that were to be the case with Chip, we would risk needing to subsequently transfer him from an Assisted Living facility (~$4,200 per month) to a Skilled Nursing/Long-term care facility (~$8,000 per month). Both of these figures are insurmountable with our current financial situation, but the latter would be completely catastrophic without significant financial aid from the government or some other external source of funding.
The biggest kicker of all is that Chip won’t be eligible to apply for any of the state or federal Medicaid programs (which are the programs that cover assisted living and long-term care costs) until April 2021, as we are currently in an asset “look back” period. Because Chip has no savings and only had one major asset, the family property in Hamilton, which was transferred into Cove’s name 4 years ago (initiating the 5-year “look back” period), he will be a great candidate to receive help from Medicaid when we are finally able to apply. But in the meantime, in order to hold onto the property — Cove’s sole inheritance and a hugely important piece of his family’s history — Cove and I have personally taken on the full range of costs of caring for Chip.
Right now, Cove and I are staring down the barrel of one full year’s worth of monthly payments ranging between $1,200 (minimal in-home respite care) and $8,000 (24-hour skilled nursing) for Chip’s care, all depending on his changing health, available care options in the area, and ultimately creating an environment that keeps him, his caregivers, and us safe and physically/emotionally healthy.
UPDATE ON CHIP'S CONDITION
We know a lot of you who are reading this care deeply for Chip and would like to know how he’s doing overall. We’d like to afford him some privacy and dignity in this final phase of Alzheimer’s, as it can be a pretty disturbing and embarrassing affair. But we can share these general updates on his condition:
- Chip struggles to remember who anyone is, including close friends, caregivers, and even Cove. He does recognize faces and will often get to a point of remembering friends and family, but at this point, we don’t assume he knows anyone at first glance.
- Chip experiences almost constant hallucinations and is therefore, understandably, afraid and agitated much of the time. To him, reflections and shadows are real flesh-and-blood people, which was the primary cause of his initial, drastic change in behavior. These days, he experiences intense agitation and consistent angry outbursts as a result of his fear, and he regularly acts out physically against Cove. This volatility is why we’re hoping to get Chip into an assisted living facility, as it would establish much greater consistency of routine, in addition to keeping him in a safe environment under the supervision of trained professionals.
- Chip is still able to play his guitar! The human brain is seriously a marvel. While he can only play the same little ditty over and over, we’re so grateful for the fact that he can still engage with his beloved music, which is what he dedicated his entire life to.
- Chip still loves going on walks and is surprisingly spry given the rest of his condition! Walks have been a great way for him to connect with visiting friends in the past, but given the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19, we unfortunately can’t host any visitors for the time being. It’s also important for one of us to be present for any visits, so that we can help prevent/manage any erratic behavior from Chip. Sadly, it’s not as simple as dropping in for a visit anymore, but please know that we’re trying to find ways for loved ones to connect with him before the end.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Long story long: caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s is ridiculously expensive! And there are minimal resources out there for helping families like ours pay for care when help from the government is not yet an option (though if you know of any we may have missed, please send our way!). We know so many people’s livelihoods have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, so we will immensely appreciate any and all contributions to Chip’s fund, big or small, if it is realistic and comfortable for you.
TO DONATE*:
You can obviously donate through this GoFundMe page! But if you'd prefer another method for sending donations, here are the best alternatives:
Venmo: @cavemanjazz, @amy-darling
PayPal: [email redacted], [email redacted]
Checks: We'd rather not provide our mailing address via this public forum, so please email either one of us (email addresses directly above) if you need that information. Checks should be made out to "George Jasmin."
*Note on gift taxation: We recognize this is an insane amount, and we DO NOT expect anyone to give this much, but we wanted to warn that gifts greater than $15,000 will become taxable by the federal government *for the donor.* As gift recipients, we won't be taxed either way, but we wanted to make sure everyone was informed!
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and boy are we feeling desperate. But we’d like to reiterate how incredibly grateful we are to have such a robust and loving community surrounding us. Without you all, we probably would have crumbled by now. So THANK YOU for your emotional support in dark times, your compassion and understanding when we’ve grown distant or distracted, and your unending humor and enthusiasm when we struggle to muster our own. Times are tough, but they’re a whole lot better with you in our corner.
Tons of love,
Amy & Cove
P.S. Check out Chip's old website, a pretty dang endearing blast from the not-so-distant past. And see below a great example of the joy Chip brought to classrooms across Montana!
THE NUMBERS
We felt that — if we were going to ask our community for this level of help — we owed it to you to provide a breakdown of potential costs for us over the next year, detail how we would use whatever funds we gathered, and be as transparent as possible about our own situation. To that end...
FACILITY COSTS (for Hamilton, MT)
Assisted Living Memory Care Unit: ~$4,200/month
Skilled Nursing/Long-term Care: ~$8,000/month
ANTICIPATED CARE NEEDS**
(until eligible for Medicaid in April 2021)
In-home care for 2 months: ~$3,500
Assisted Living (Memory Care) for 6 months: ~$25,500
Skilled Nursing for 4 months: ~$32,000
Attorney Fees for Medicaid application process: ~$5,000
TOTAL: ~$66,000
**This is of course all based on our somewhat arbitrary estimates of how long Chip will be in which type of care situation, so it could end up costing a bit less or a lot more than these estimates.
We are doing everything we can to bring more income into our home through increased hours at our jobs and additional gigs on the side, but there’s a stark limit to what we’re able to generate ourselves in our current circumstances. We plan to use all of the funds generated through this campaign to pay directly for Chip’s care, whether it be writing a check to an in-home caregiver, to an assisted living facility, or to a lawyer who's helping us apply for Medicaid.
THE BACKSTORY
Chip Jasmin (Cove’s father and my soon-to-be father-in-law) is a well-known and widely beloved musician and teacher. He travelled around Montana for 30 years, teaching thousands of schoolchildren about history and culture through song and dance. He was also a fiddler and multi-instrumental folk musician who deeply loved and invigorated the local Irish music scene in Missoula and the Bitterroot, helping to facilitate countless jam circles and contra dances for his cherished friends and community. He was also a loving father to Cove and husband to Amy Dittmaier, his wife and Cove’s mother, who passed away in 2001 from cancer.
In 2015, Chip was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. It has been a relatively slow progression overall, but as many of you know, this disease is wildly unpredictable. Cove and I poured our own resources into renovating a small barn into an apartment on his family property in Hamilton, Montana. We then moved into that barn apartment last June (2019), so that we could be here to spend time with and care for Chip, knowing he was becoming less independent. For the rest of 2019, we were able to manage Chip’s care primarily by ourselves, with the help of one part-time caregiver who spent ~10 hours with Chip each week, providing companionship and helping him with basic daily activities like preparing meals, bathing, doing some light cleaning, etc. But in mid-January, Chip’s condition took a sudden and dramatic downturn, leading us into a new phase of him needing almost constant supervision and care.
In response to these changes, we dramatically increased our original caregiver’s hours and also hired a second caregiver, along with a few friends and volunteers, to fill the gaps in the schedule when Cove and I needed to be at work. Then, a global pandemic hit, and we went back to being Chip’s nearly full-time caregivers as we’ve taken a hit to our income (like many people!).
OUR CURRENT SITUATION
During these last couple months, Chip’s condition has continued to deteriorate, and we fear we’re reaching the limits of our ability to care for him without putting him and ourselves in constant emotional distress and actual physical danger. With the aggression and violent outbursts (lesser known but very common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease) on the rise, Cove has become the only caregiver who’s capable of dealing with Chip in his agitated state, and as such, the burden has shifted almost entirely to his shoulders. As businesses open and the potential for returning to our regular work schedules becomes a reality, we are faced with a complicated decision regarding Chip’s care and our own abilities to make a living. After months and months of research, conversations with professionals, and private deliberation, we feel that the best thing for Chip and for us and his caregivers is to find a way to get him into a more stable environment — an assisted living facility — where he can benefit from consistent routine and compassionate care.
Our main concern with this potential move is the possibility of a sudden and rapid decline, which can result from drastically changing a dementia patient’s environment (i.e. taking them out of their home). If that were to be the case with Chip, we would risk needing to subsequently transfer him from an Assisted Living facility (~$4,200 per month) to a Skilled Nursing/Long-term care facility (~$8,000 per month). Both of these figures are insurmountable with our current financial situation, but the latter would be completely catastrophic without significant financial aid from the government or some other external source of funding.
The biggest kicker of all is that Chip won’t be eligible to apply for any of the state or federal Medicaid programs (which are the programs that cover assisted living and long-term care costs) until April 2021, as we are currently in an asset “look back” period. Because Chip has no savings and only had one major asset, the family property in Hamilton, which was transferred into Cove’s name 4 years ago (initiating the 5-year “look back” period), he will be a great candidate to receive help from Medicaid when we are finally able to apply. But in the meantime, in order to hold onto the property — Cove’s sole inheritance and a hugely important piece of his family’s history — Cove and I have personally taken on the full range of costs of caring for Chip.
Right now, Cove and I are staring down the barrel of one full year’s worth of monthly payments ranging between $1,200 (minimal in-home respite care) and $8,000 (24-hour skilled nursing) for Chip’s care, all depending on his changing health, available care options in the area, and ultimately creating an environment that keeps him, his caregivers, and us safe and physically/emotionally healthy.
UPDATE ON CHIP'S CONDITION
We know a lot of you who are reading this care deeply for Chip and would like to know how he’s doing overall. We’d like to afford him some privacy and dignity in this final phase of Alzheimer’s, as it can be a pretty disturbing and embarrassing affair. But we can share these general updates on his condition:
- Chip struggles to remember who anyone is, including close friends, caregivers, and even Cove. He does recognize faces and will often get to a point of remembering friends and family, but at this point, we don’t assume he knows anyone at first glance.
- Chip experiences almost constant hallucinations and is therefore, understandably, afraid and agitated much of the time. To him, reflections and shadows are real flesh-and-blood people, which was the primary cause of his initial, drastic change in behavior. These days, he experiences intense agitation and consistent angry outbursts as a result of his fear, and he regularly acts out physically against Cove. This volatility is why we’re hoping to get Chip into an assisted living facility, as it would establish much greater consistency of routine, in addition to keeping him in a safe environment under the supervision of trained professionals.
- Chip is still able to play his guitar! The human brain is seriously a marvel. While he can only play the same little ditty over and over, we’re so grateful for the fact that he can still engage with his beloved music, which is what he dedicated his entire life to.
- Chip still loves going on walks and is surprisingly spry given the rest of his condition! Walks have been a great way for him to connect with visiting friends in the past, but given the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19, we unfortunately can’t host any visitors for the time being. It’s also important for one of us to be present for any visits, so that we can help prevent/manage any erratic behavior from Chip. Sadly, it’s not as simple as dropping in for a visit anymore, but please know that we’re trying to find ways for loved ones to connect with him before the end.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Long story long: caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s is ridiculously expensive! And there are minimal resources out there for helping families like ours pay for care when help from the government is not yet an option (though if you know of any we may have missed, please send our way!). We know so many people’s livelihoods have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, so we will immensely appreciate any and all contributions to Chip’s fund, big or small, if it is realistic and comfortable for you.
TO DONATE*:
You can obviously donate through this GoFundMe page! But if you'd prefer another method for sending donations, here are the best alternatives:
Venmo: @cavemanjazz, @amy-darling
PayPal: [email redacted], [email redacted]
Checks: We'd rather not provide our mailing address via this public forum, so please email either one of us (email addresses directly above) if you need that information. Checks should be made out to "George Jasmin."
*Note on gift taxation: We recognize this is an insane amount, and we DO NOT expect anyone to give this much, but we wanted to warn that gifts greater than $15,000 will become taxable by the federal government *for the donor.* As gift recipients, we won't be taxed either way, but we wanted to make sure everyone was informed!
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and boy are we feeling desperate. But we’d like to reiterate how incredibly grateful we are to have such a robust and loving community surrounding us. Without you all, we probably would have crumbled by now. So THANK YOU for your emotional support in dark times, your compassion and understanding when we’ve grown distant or distracted, and your unending humor and enthusiasm when we struggle to muster our own. Times are tough, but they’re a whole lot better with you in our corner.
Tons of love,
Amy & Cove
P.S. Check out Chip's old website, a pretty dang endearing blast from the not-so-distant past. And see below a great example of the joy Chip brought to classrooms across Montana!
Organizer and beneficiary
Amy Darling
Organizer
Hamilton, MT
Cove Jasmin
Beneficiary