When Miri's mother, matriarch of a large family, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, all her children rallied around her. Her daughters and daughters-in-law took turns cooking and spending the day with their mother, arranging to have a grandchild sleep over each night.

However, as time went on, her condition deteriorated, and it became more and more difficult to care for her on their own. Miri's mother would wake up at night disoriented, wanting to wander off, and the grandchildren were not equipped to handle this. They were all being stretched thin and it was clear the support system they had set up was no longer sustainable.

Miri took up the daunting task of trying to secure an aide. However, despite her tireless efforts, the bureaucratic maze seemed insurmountable. The family faced the looming question — was placing their mother in a nursing home the only option?

It was Yossi, Miri’s youngest brother, who discovered the NHTD Waiver — and the hope that they could receive the support they needed to keep their mother home. Upon reaching out to Hamaspik, Miri was connected to a service coordinator who worked tirelessly to get her mother approved. They were so relieved to receive full-time care and home modifications allowing their mother to age peacefully at home, surrounded by her loved ones.

"If not for Hamaspik, my mother would have had to go into nursing home care — losing access to the comforting, familiar things that are all she really has left," says Miri gratefully.