By Linda Fodrini‐Johnson, MA, MFT, CMC
Founder & Chairman, Eldercare Services
In my thirty plus years of doing Professional Care Management, I have had the privilege to work with many same sex couples – several of them were together over 50 years and they had loving, caring relationships with their partners.
All of these couples sought guidance and support because one of the couple had a progressive or serious illness – many had a partner with dementia. Interestingly, often the well partner died before the one needing assistance and that person was not able to get social security or other benefits from the partner who died because they were not married. It was my experience to get many of these surviving partners onto Medi-Cal and I had to place them in Skilled Nursing. Had they the Social Security or Surviving Spouse Retirement benefits, they would have been able to go to a nice, small Board and Care Home or many could have even afforded in-home care.
We are so pleased with the recent decision of the Supreme Court and the benefits these loving couples can now extend to the love of their life.