Resources · Monument, CO

Paying for home care in Monument and the Tri-Lakes, CO

Money is the reason many Monument families put off a conversation they know they need to have, and it is also the reason they end up paying more than they should. The hour rate in this area is $40, a live-in day is $650 flat, and a visit runs three hours minimum. Multiply those out honestly for a month and most families arrive at the same place: it is doable, and it is not comfortable, and there is help out there that has not been claimed.

The county has a stack of it. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging funds programs free for adults over 60, its information line is (719) 471-2096, and the Yellow Book it publishes has listed El Paso, Park and Teller county services nearly every year since 1967. Tri-Lakes Cares on North Jefferson Street covers prescriptions, rent, utilities and medical costs in the northern county. Silver Key delivers meals and drives people to appointments. None of that requires a private-pay invoice to start.

We are Colorado CareAssist, a family-owned, non-medical agency, and most families who sit down with us are working out more than one of these questions at once. Our caregivers are trained for dementia and matched on skills and personality. The rate here is $40 an hour with a three-hour minimum, live-in care is $650 for a day, and no long-term contract is required. We are a VA Community Care Network provider, and we help families use long-term care insurance instead of leaving the folder in a drawer. Begin with a free twenty-minute call to (303) 757-1777, then a free assessment at home or by video, with nothing binding you.

What private pay actually costs here

A visit bills in three-hour blocks at $40 an hour, and the first question is usually how many of those a week. Most families who start, start at three visits a week and adjust from there. Live-in care at $650 for the day covers the hours when nobody in the family can be in the house, and a flat daily figure means there is no overtime arithmetic at the end of the month.

No long-term contract is required, and that is deliberate. A family should be able to try a month, learn what actually happens, and change the arrangement without a conversation about breaking something. Ask for the rate in writing before the first visit, ask what raises the bill, and ask who to call when a visit has to be cancelled. Those three questions are the whole difference between a service you can budget and one you are guessing about.

Call these first, in this order

The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the front door for this region, and the line is (719) 471-2096. It serves Monument and Palmer Lake, and the Older Americans Act money behind it is free for anyone over 60: support for family caregivers, home modifications, personal and home care, rides, meals, help with insurance and Medicaid, and vision care. The age-friendly portal spells out what each program covers, which is worth reading before you assume something you need is not available.

Second call is Tri-Lakes Cares, which has limited funds for prescriptions, rent, mortgage, utilities, medical and transportation bills for northern El Paso County, covering the Monument, Palmer Lake, Gleneagle and Academy ZIP codes and part of Black Forest. There is a Market and Pantry on North Jefferson Street where anyone can take one emergency grocery bag with no enrollment, and a Keep It Moving program that puts bus passes, oil changes and small car repairs behind a family so a dead battery does not cost a missed appointment.

The policy in the folder

Long-term care insurance is the most underused resource in this region, and the most misunderstood. Policies differ, and the only way to know what yours pays for is to read it with someone who does this every day. Bring it to the assessment and we will go through it with you: what the benefit period covers, what the daily benefit actually pays out, and what triggers it.

The same goes for the county's directory of regional resources. The Yellow Book lists Envida Moves at (719) 633-4677 for countywide rides and SeniorCare LLC at (719) 440-3426 for care management and guardianship advocacy in the Springs area. If your needs reach past what you can pay for privately, needs outside El Paso, Park and Teller counties are routed to the National Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116.

The veterans' door

We work inside the VA Community Care Network, which means a veteran in the Tri-Lakes can arrange paid home care through it rather than searching on their own. That conversation happens with us, and the paperwork is part of the service.

For everything else a veteran asks the county about, the Senior Information and Assistance line at (719) 471-2096 is the right desk, and it can answer questions about benefits and connect a family to the right office. We are glad to sit with you on the call, because the two systems talk in different language and the wrong door costs weeks.

Stretching the rest of the budget

The list of things that are not in the care budget is short in a good year and very short in a bad one. Silver Key's Tri-Lakes senior center at (719) 884-2300 serves older adults in Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor with four to eight activities a day and a hot lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and it delivers Meals on Wheels. Rocky Mountain PACE, (719) 314-2327, covers medical care, day centers, meals and transportation for people 55 and older who qualify for nursing-home level of care.

Both of those are ways of paying for a day that would otherwise be paid for privately, and both of them are free or near it. It also helps to keep one folder in one drawer, holding the policy, the benefit letters, our phone number, the county's number and the name of a second person who can come if the first one cannot. When the month gets confusing, that folder is the difference between a plan and a scramble.

There is a version of this conversation that never happens because nobody raises it. A family assumes private pay is the only way, so they wait, and the waiting is what costs the most. The Tri-Lakes has a directory, a benefits line, a pantry, a meal program and a ride system, all of it built for exactly this region, and none of it needs a referral from a hospital or a doctor's note to start. The county line at (719) 471-2096 will walk a family through what applies to their address, and Silver Key's senior center at (719) 884-2300 will say who to ask for in person.

When the arithmetic still does not work

Some households reach a point where the number does not close, and no program closes it. Then the conversation is not about money but about what care is actually needed, and it is worth having that conversation early rather than after a fall.

If the last stretch feels desperate, Colorado's crisis line can be reached by call or text 988. It is free and confidential. And if you are simply not sure what a week of paid care would cost in your house, that is a twenty-minute phone call, not a commitment. Call (303) 757-1777, talk it through, and let a free assessment in the home or over video tell you what the hours look like for the person you are actually worried about.

Local resources in Monument

The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is at 14 S. Chestnut St., Colorado Springs, with Senior Information and Assistance at (719) 471-2096; its age-friendly portal lists Monument and Palmer Lake among the communities served, and its Older Americans Act programs are free for adults over 60, covering caregiver resources, home modifications, personal and home care, transportation, meals, insurance and Medicaid support, and vision services. Source
The Pikes Peak AAA Yellow Book has been published nearly every year since 1967 as the senior directory for El Paso, Park and Teller counties; needs outside those counties go to the National Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116. Source
The Yellow Book's senior-services listings include SeniorCare LLC at (719) 440-3426 for care management and guardianship advocacy in the Springs area. Source
Envida Moves, (719) 633-4677 at 5660 N Academy Blvd, Colorado Springs, serves El Paso and Teller counties in coordination with Silver Key and the Tri-Lakes-area senior services. Source
Tri-Lakes Cares provides limited financial assistance for prescriptions, rent, mortgage, utilities, medical and transportation costs to northern El Paso County, with service ZIPs including 80132 Monument, 80133 Palmer Lake, 80921 Gleneagle, 80840 Academy and portions of 80908 Black Forest. Source
Tri-Lakes Cares runs a Market and Pantry on North Jefferson Street in Monument where anyone can receive one emergency grocery bag with no enrollment, and a Keep It Moving program covering bus passes, oil changes and minor car repairs. Source
The Silver Key Tri-Lakes senior center in Monument (719-884-2300) is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays for older adults in Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor with four to eight activities a day and a Connections Cafe hot lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; Silver Key also lists Meals on Wheels, Reserve and Ride and senior assistance. Source
Rocky Mountain PACE provides coordinated medical care, day centers with activities, meals and transportation for people 55 and older who meet nursing-home level of care; it is reached at (719) 314-2327 with a TTY line at (800) 659-2656. Source
Colorado's 988 line is posted by regional senior resources; call or text 988. Source
The Tri-Lakes is the three-town area of Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor, sitting between Denver and Colorado Springs along I-25 at the north edge of El Paso County, with Monument the largest of the three communities and more than 7,000 residents. Source

Families in Monument can start with a free in-home assessment, or read about home care in Monument.