MF Family Home Care provides veterans home care on Cape Cod for former service members and their surviving spouses. It is also the page where we tell you about money that a great many families are entitled to and never claim.
We provide non-medical home care. We do not perform skilled nursing, we do not operate a hospice program, and we do not bill Medicare.
Service during a recognised period of war, though not necessarily in combat or overseas.
Bathing, dressing, mobility, medication management — exactly the help described on this page.
within the VA's limits, where the cost of care itself is part of the calculation.
of qualifying veterans may also be eligible, which is the part families most often miss.
One call, a free visit at home, and a written plan you can change. Most families begin smaller than they expect.
Tell us what is happening and what a normal day looks like now compared with six months ago.
We come to the house and look at the practical things — the stairs, the bathroom, the kitchen, the hours when nobody is around.
Most families begin smaller than they expect and adjust within the first month. No long-term contract is required to begin.
Eligibility is decided by the VA, not by us, and it generally turns on a few things:
Wartime service. Service during a recognised period of war, though not necessarily in combat or overseas.
A need for help with daily living. Bathing, dressing, mobility, medication management — exactly the help described on this page.
Income and assets within the VA’s limits, where the cost of care itself is part of the calculation.
Surviving spouses of qualifying veterans may also be eligible, which is the part families most often miss.
Your local Veterans Service Officer can tell you where you stand, and the appointment is free. Every town on the Cape has access to one.
The same as our other clients, with two differences worth naming.
First, we do not treat military service as decoration. A ninety-year-old who will not accept help from anyone will sometimes accept it framed as something he earned rather than something he needs.
Second, some veterans carry things that surface as they age — the sleep, the noise sensitivity, the reluctance to have strangers in the house. A caregiver who is not surprised by that does better work.
We provide personal care, companionship, homemaking, dementia support, respite for the spouse, and overnight or live-in coverage.
Every caregiver clears a Massachusetts CORI background check before entering a client’s home, and MF Family Home Care carries insurance covering the work our caregivers do in your home. Ask any agency for both — a household letting someone in unsupervised should not have to wonder. We match caregivers to households deliberately — schedule, temperament, language and the specific help required — because a good match is what makes someone accept help at all.
MF Family Home Care is owned by Marlene Plouf, a Certified Nurse Aide registered with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health under CNA54796 — a credential with a number the state can verify. Very few agencies in this region put an owner’s certification in writing.
Nobody publishes this, so families end up calling five agencies to build a picture. Here is the honest range.
Across Massachusetts, in-home care generally runs between $35 and $46 an hour, with a statewide planning average near $38. Cape Cod sits above that — in Barnstable, home care can reach $50 an hour. The reason is supply: Barnstable County has one of the oldest populations in the country and a caregiver workforce squeezed by the seasonal housing market.
Companion hours sit at the lower end of the range, hands-on personal care in the middle. Overnight and live-in schedules are quoted differently from an hourly rate, because a caregiver who sleeps in the house is not billed like one working an active shift. Ask any agency to explain which one they are quoting before you compare two numbers, or you will be comparing figures that do not mean the same thing.
Your real number depends on how many hours you need, whether nights and weekends are involved, and how much hands-on help is required. We give a figure on the phone rather than a brochure.
The person receiving care is not the only one whose week changes.
Adult children stop driving over at lunchtime to check on something. The daughter who has been managing appointments, prescriptions and groceries from two towns away gets a report instead of a guess. The spouse who has been doing all of it alone gets to be a husband or a wife again rather than only a caregiver.
That shift matters as much as the practical help. Families who bring in support early tend to keep a parent at home for years longer than families who wait, because the arrangement stays survivable for everyone in it — not just for the person in the bed.
We serve families throughout Barnstable County, including Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Hyannis, Yarmouth, West Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown — and across Massachusetts, including Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Framingham, Brockton and Plymouth.
Our office is at 21 College Road, West Yarmouth, MA 02673.
We answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
The questions families ask us most, answered plainly.
No. We are not a VA contract provider. The benefit is generally paid to the veteran or surviving spouse, who then pays for care.
It varies considerably, and it can take months. That is a reason to start now rather than when the need becomes urgent.
Possibly. This is the most commonly missed category. It is worth asking a Veterans Service Officer.
We point you to your Veterans Service Officer, who does this properly and at no cost. Anyone charging you a fee to file a VA claim is worth a second look.
Usually within a few days. We answer the phone at night and on weekends, because these decisions are rarely made during business hours.
