Community First – After leaving her job to care for her husband, a Colorado Springs caregiver found financial relief and confidence through a state program that pays trained family members for long-term care through Medicaid.
In January 2026, Deaundra Vega said her family’s routine finally shifted from survival mode to something closer to stability. The moment came with the discovery of a little-known Colorado program called Community First Services and Supports. known as CFSS—one that helps people who need long-term care stay in their homes.
For Vega, the change mattered because the care she provided had become full time, and the costs had become unbearable. She is 52 and lives in Colorado Springs. Her husband. Jesse. had been forced to medically retire as an audiovisual engineer with the Department of Defense after epilepsy took over his daily life—dozens of seizures every day. according to her account.
They met online in 2022 and quickly realized they already knew members of each other’s families. But when they began dating. Vega said she started to question what it would mean to be with someone who lived with a severe condition. Jesse had an episode while they were out together. His brother was on hand and took care of him, but the incident shook Vega. She worried about whether she could handle that kind of health reality for the long term.
That concern turned into an emergency. One day, Jesse had a serious episode, and Vega found him with a huge bruise across his face. She said he had hurt himself badly—an event that convinced her he needed care around the clock.
The medical side of the situation tightened the net further. The doctor agreed that Jesse couldn’t be left alone. The challenge, Vega said, was that he was allergic to the conventional medication used to treat epilepsy. Even basic tasks were unsafe without supervision; he couldn’t shower himself without someone watching.
There was no easy way to pay for professional help, and Vega said she understood the math of it immediately. She described herself as a giver, and she decided she wanted to be with Jesse for the rest of her life. If it meant giving up her job in medical billing, she said, she would do it.
Money got tight after she quit. She stopped working a few months after their wedding in October 2023. The final straw came, she said, with a spell in the ICU following another severe episode. After the hospital staff taught her how to care for Jesse. the couple spent the following two-and-a-half years struggling both financially and emotionally.
What made the struggle especially harsh was the income cut. Vega said they didn’t qualify for anything beyond Jesse’s Medicaid payment. They downsized to a smaller property. and she described the day-to-day work of stretching every dollar—from searching shelves for the cheapest groceries to trying to make frugality their only plan.
Then CFSS arrived, and with it a different model of care—one that treated family caregiving less like unpaid sacrifice and more like a role that could be trained and compensated. Vega said she and Jesse learned about the program in January 2026. They signed up with a platform called Abby Care.
Under the setup, Abby Care provides formal training to family members. The training is designed to help them qualify as professional carers so they can be paid for their services through Medicaid.
Wages, Vega said, range from $15 to $27 an hour depending on the type of care and the certifications required. She completed courses including first aid, food hygiene, and medication awareness. One skill she singled out was learning to handle a gait belt—a safety device intended to help protect Jesse from falls.
As a personal care assistant, Vega said she now feels more confident managing her husband’s needs. The added income has also pulled the family out of a financial rut.
The change has come alongside progress in Jesse’s treatment, not just the household budget. Vega said Jesse has started a new drug that better controls his seizures, and she described that as part of what’s giving them hope for a brighter, safer future together.
The sequence in their story is stark: a doctor’s warning that he couldn’t be left alone. years of unpaid. supervised life after Vega quit her job. and then a Medicaid-backed training pathway that turned family caregiving into paid work. What shifted in January 2026 wasn’t only the paperwork—it was the ability to do what she already had been doing. with instruction. certification. and wages that finally matched the reality on the ground.
For Vega, the payoff is measured in confidence and stability. For readers watching how long-term care is funded and delivered, it’s a reminder that the difference between burnout and sustainability can sometimes hinge on something as practical as access to the right program.
long-term care Medicaid caregiver training epilepsy Community First Services and Supports CFSS Abby Care Colorado Springs personal care assistant family caregiving health care finance