Assisted Living in Brazil

@Hugodc2000 I live in Parazinho, a small village of 2,500 6 hours from Fortaleza, but only 25 minutes from Jericocoara.

• The benefits of a small village etc. is that property is much easier to come by than in a major city like Sao Paulo.
• We have many Urgent Cares in the area as well as pharmacies. I only had to go to the hospital in Fortaleza once for a tumor, everything else including my dental surgery was taken care of locally.

The Set Up: I have been here about 1 1/2 years, so progress has been gradual. Basically, my wife of 24 years had to return to Brazil for health reasons. Her family is in the area. Step by Step she created a very, very large Assisted Living Compound on many, many acres of land that she owns, with enough land for more construction. There are three houses. One with her, my 97-year-old Brazilian 2nd. mother and my wife's mentally challenged uncle. I live in the second house (built like an Air BNb with only one floor) few feet away near the pool and our Live-In PM caretaker has the third house with her kids. Simba, my loyal guard dog stays with me. Pandora, my wife's loyal guard dog stays with them. we have an AM caretaker that comes in at 8am and makes breakfast for everyone. Our PM caretaker starts at 3pm until 10 pm and also helps my wive with the SORVETE SHOP, (Named the best in GRANJA for the second year in a row). EVERYTHING is paid for none of the property or car has any debt.

Relationships: i hurt myself holding my tongue sometimes because ALL this was built with the relationships my wife has with the Brazilian People in her community that followed her from her house in FORTALEZA to Parazenha to take care of this generation and the next They are very loyal and kind and I don't share the negative attitudes some have about people in the country they have chosen to live in.

HawkeySwarm - This is my family's story. it was built on relationships with very good Brazilian people who have helped create the foundation of our Retirement as well as my daughter of 23 who will inherit all this. Imagine being 23 and having your retirement all taken care of. In the USA my aunt insisted on mortgaging all her assets so she could spend her senior years with all the rich people in a fancy retirement home. I cannot tell you what to do but realize there is more than one way to RETIRE.

Roddie in Retirement

Hello everyone,

Welcome on board @Hugodc2000,

Please note that this new thread has been created on the Brazil forum from your posts so that you may better interact with members to gather information.

All the best

Bhavna

06/19/24    oi amigo , i will like some information about assisted living in Brasil , i speak portuguese ,    am planning to   retire in Brasili but i am open to revomendatios from another cities,  thanks
   

    -@Hugodc2000

I'm glad that this question was given its own thread, because a lot of people will be interested in this. 

A great deal of this service is still family-based.  Third-party services are certainly developing in the major cities and since you're looking hard at Brasília, you may have some luck there.  Here's one site that can give you some ideas in the Federal District and in other parts of the country, as well:

https://www.sssenior.com.br/

@roddiesho, thank you for sharing.  I also think that this is an important thread that would benefit many.

In addition to physical assistance, memory care is something that is currently very expensive in North America.  Retiring to a group home while still mobile is expensive but not as expensive as caring for dementia or alzheimer's.  There is a brand new memory care unit close to where I live and it is between US$10 - 20K / month.

Do you know more about that part of the industry?

Thank you.

@Pablo888 My best advice is to have the relative checked out by a doctor. My 97-year-old Brazilian mother probably has dementia. I say that because the whole family seemed to assume she did, but I was never present when a medical doctor confirmed it. She knows me but does not seem to know my wife who flew her from the United States to Brazil and her new home. I am not sure if anything can be done, especially for that amount of money. At 97 I am kind of fine with the situation. I see her every morning.

One thing you may be interested in I did with my daughter and father when my father was 96. I may have mentioned my YouTube Channel to be etc. That is because I have been doing family documentaries since my grandmother was 102.

Summer and I did a half hour documentary on my father. It was during his 96th birthday party and we had the individual family members, including the kids wish him Happy Birthday We then interviewed him in the backyard. "Why did you move to R.I.", "What was your occupation and how did it come about" "How did you raise the two boys when your first wife passed away" "Tell me about the church you belonged to"" What did you think of your time in the military?" What do you think of Roddie," "What do you think of Summer" etc. etc.     I have plenty of B Roll from videos and photos of when we grew up that I added postproduction, as well as non-royalty music.

I often talk about Simba being my biggest challenge. This was my biggest accomplishment. I play it for myself every Father's Day and his birthday.

Roddie in Retirement

06/20/24 In addition to physical assistance, memory care is something that is currently very expensive in North America.  Retiring to a group home while still mobile is expensive but not as expensive as caring for dementia or alzheimer's.  There is a brand new memory care unit close to where I live and it is between US$10 - 20K / month.
   

    -@Pablo888

So true!  I think that it would be hard for anyone in the US to afford memory care unless they had a very rich longterm care insurance policy.  When my mother went into assisted living she had a pretty good policy and we organized her finances in a way that would have maintained her well past her 100th year, as long as she didn't need full memory care:  that would have overwhelmed all our planning.

One of the reasons that memory and mental care is so expensive is that there is so little available to manage or treat the conditions.

For example, this is an FDA approved drug to manage alzheimer's -> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho … -lecanemab

This does not stop or reverse the condition but only slows it down.

Are such treatment available in Sao Paulo or Brazilia?

I have heard that people do maintain an apartment in Sao Paulo for medical treatment.  Is this the way to go for retirement in order to cover all the bases?

Or will this only end up being as expensive as living in the US?

@Pablo888 I have only been to the airport in Sao Paulo (nice people), but I do not get the impression it is less expensive. As a matter of fact, I am curious to know what the most expensive city is to live in in Brazil?

Just a note. All my medical needs were taken care of in Brazil, not so much for the cost as accessibility.

I had to move to New England during my father's last days at 99 and EVERYONE said they were not taking new patients and I would have to wait several months,

Roddie in Retirement

Summer and I did a half hour documentary on my father. It was during his 96th birthday party and we had the individual family members, including the kids wish him Happy Birthday We then interviewed him in the backyard. "Why did you move to R.I.", "What was your occupation and how did it come about" "How did you raise the two boys when your first wife passed away" "Tell me about the church you belonged to"" What did you think of your time in the military?" What do you think of Roddie," "What do you think of Summer" etc. etc.     I have plenty of B Roll from videos and photos of when we grew up that I added postproduction, as well as non-royalty music
    -@roddiesho

Interesting that you did a documentary on your father.... People with alzheimer's need to be reminded of a lot of things and recording and playing back may become a very useful tool to restore some sense of normalcy.

Have you thought of allowing the older members of the family to playback events on demand?

@Pablo888 Thanx, but their are no more older members, except for my Brazilian mother and at 97 she only demands coffee in the morning. My parents outlived all of them. I do have footage of my younger cousin at my late grandmothers102nd. birthday. It has my cousin's late mother, and late ex-husband. I promised a recording for Christmas.

Roddie in Retirement

FYI.

Here is the second Alzheimer's disease management drug...-> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/ … gNewsSerp.

The approximate cost is around $35K / year and it's planned to be covered by medicare in the US.  How about Brazil?

@Pablo888 I heard that announcement and it brought back memories. In my Radio Advertising Days, the Alzheimer's Association - Washington, D.C. Local Chapter was a client and I created and presented a proposal to advertise The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's. It didn't happen, but I have always had a soft spot for them.

Roddie in Retirement

    FYI.
Here is the second Alzheimer's disease management drug...-> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/ … gNewsSerp.

The approximate cost is around $35K / year and it's planned to be covered by medicare in the US.  How about Brazil?
   

    -@Pablo888

Just in case this drug is not available in Brazil, is this when someone would go back to US with Medicare Part B and D to get this?