Traumatic Brain Injury leaves grown man with few care options
Jeff Lewelling was struck by a car three years ago while riding his bike and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Once struck, he flew 30 feet and landed on his unprotected head. Now, 43, his long term care options are limited if even existent. Lewelling now uses a walker to move around because the left side of his body is partially paralyzed. He doesn’t know what year it is, lacks short-term memory and sometimes wakes in the middle of the night not knowing where he is. If Jeff Lewelling’s accident occurred before he had turned 18, he would have qualified for a host of lifelong, publicly funded services designed to help him live as independently as possible. However, his accident happened at age 40, his father and stepmother, Floyd and Debbie Lewelling, say few services exist to help them care for Jeff. He requires 24-hour supervision. He qualifies for $1,200 monthly from Social Security, Medi-Cal health benefits and limited services through Options, a program for people with traumatic brain injuries. Options gets funding through California’s only traumatic brain injury program, which has a total statewide budget of $1.1 million a year. Lewelling received a measly $35,000 settlement after his accident which is almost gone. That money subsidizes the $3,000-a-month residential care home where he has lived since leaving the hospital in August 2004. His parents want to keep him there, but they can’t afford it, and no public program will pay for it. Medi-Cal will pay, however, for Jeff Lewelling to live in a nursing home, at twice the price. Floyd Lewelling said, “Medi-Cal or someone should be able to evaluate the situation and see it’s cheaper (where he lives now), and he gets the care he needs.” California does not have federal approval to use Medi-Cal dollars to pay for community-based services, such as board-and-care homes and people with traumatic brain injuries don’t qualify for county mental health services. The Lewellings cannot imagine their 43-year-old son in a convalescent home. He may not have full cognitive ability, but he’s not ready for a nursing home. In fact, that may not be an option either because two local nursing homes have turned down Jeff’s application because he is too young and can have behavioral issues. The state Department of Mental Health formed a Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board in November to develop possible solutions for situations such as the Lewellings’.
