Assisting living levels of care - can anyone help explain?
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Anonymous
| My 90 yr old grandparents just moved into assisted living (because of proximity and other dysfunctional issues, I'm the primary contact for them, although I don't have any legal standing). Gdad was assigned level zero or 1 (fully independent) and gmom was 2 levels higher (and $1000 per month surcharge). The contract/lease states all residents receive lots of basic things including "personal hygiene, bathing, dressing, ambulation, eating," etc. After 2 weeks it seems gdad asks for and needs no additional assistance. But gmom is a little out if it - needs help with about everything or at least reminders to do anything like dressing in the morning and night, showering, reminder to go to the dining room, taking a walk, joining the art club activities, etc, etc. I think if they ring their call button, someone with come and can usually help in a reasonable time - but gmom isn't good about asking for help (and thinks nothing of sleeping in her da clothes or skipping personal hygiene). My question is really what should be the level of care received? What specially should I be asking and requesting? |
Anonymous
| The squeaky wheel gets the grease in ALs. The staff is overwhelmed. We found we needed to visit every day possible to ensure basic care. It shouldn’t be like that but it is. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Do you know which/how many ADLs and instrumental ADLs she failed to get to the facility's level 2 services? That's what I'd be asking about and expecting help with the ones they flagged.
First website that came up with a Google search, I just glanced at it but it appears to explain: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/activities-of-daily-living-adls |
Anonymous
The above is useful. I would also ask for the facility's list of ADLs and what constitutes a price increase. Our AL lays out the needs and even specifices the costs for a certain number of medications. There's a price for 1-5 meds, let's say, and a higher price for 5+ medications. If they need reminders to use the bathroom, that gets factored in... We could also choose how many showers a week--every day, every other day, twice a week, etc. |
Anonymous
| Thanks for this info. I’m heading to the grandparents now and knew nothing of ADLs. |
Anonymous
| My experience with a continuing care facility in Maine is it is as little care as they could get away with. Very limited staffing. Med delivery was reliable but the rest was hit or miss. |
Anonymous
| See if you can create a calendar for them you can share with them. We have a Skylight one at home that merges my husband and my calendars with kids. It is wall mounted and you can pick which calendars to merge. You could add times for meals in common dining room, activities available, appointments for doctors etc. I think that would be a helpful tool to remind them of when meals are in common spaces and when they get food elsewhere. When my grandfather was near 100 he thought one of his very kind friends was stealing his liquor, turned out he had forgotten he had a drink already, drank again ( and again? and into withdrawal when he was not know to be an alcoholic. So maybe watch for memory issues. Find out who caseworker is. If it is their ow apartment is there someone to hire to do regular craning and can let you know if thinks aren't looking good. Want to figure out how to encourage them t ask, develop new friendships and regular habits so someone alerts staff or you if there regular habits change. |
Anonymous
| cleaning, not craning...strange spelling changes 🤯 |