95 year old mother falling repeatedly in assisted living

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are bringing in hospice care per the recommendation of her GP. It is not considered end of life care (a learning point for us--I had misunderstood this about hospice) but will mean she has someone with her 24/7. Until that is in place we are putting a mattress on the floor and will take turns staying with her. The mats are ordered. They were suggested as a good idea even after the hospice aid is in place. Thank you all for your input.

Hospice **is** end-of-life care, OP - you literally cannot be approved unless you have a prognosis of less than 6 months, and they are pretty stringent about that (by necessity) with the very elderly and people with dementia. And if it is a service coming to your mother's AL facility, it won't be 24/7; it will be an occasional supplement to her existing support system. (If she's being transferred to a hospice house, staff there are round the clock.)

This isn't fully true. There needs to be a significant change of circumstance. We had significant weight loss and that was enough to trigger hospice but they came in, forced chagnes in the nursing home, weight went up and they were forced to pull out till there was another justifiable change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your physician is wrong. Hospice is end of life care. Hospital bed would be ideal. Also, is the facility continued care? May be time to move to higher level care or as mentioned hire a night nurse to monitor. Yes, they do fall asleep and miss falls, but even in your own home you would miss some things.

They said its assisted living. They need to hire a caretaker or go to a nursing home but most nursing homes only check very two hours at best so it still will be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are bringing in hospice care per the recommendation of her GP. It is not considered end of life care (a learning point for us--I had misunderstood this about hospice) but will mean she has someone with her 24/7. Until that is in place we are putting a mattress on the floor and will take turns staying with her. The mats are ordered. They were suggested as a good idea even after the hospice aid is in place. Thank you all for your input.

Hospice is not All day and night care.

I may be wrong, but I don't know that hospice offers lift assist or help with bathroom/bathing.

An aide will come in an hour or less a few days a week to help with bathing. A nurse will come a few times a week to check vitals. If she needs a higher level of care, you need to pay for an aide or nursing home (but care will not be better).

Since Op's mom is already in AL she is presumably already getting help with bathing, right? How is calling hospice in going to help Op's mom if her mom needs overnight assistance that the AL doesn't provide? Is the solution supposed to be to get the hospital bed and a fall mat and hire a night nurse to stay with Mom overnight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your physician is wrong. Hospice is end of life care. Hospital bed would be ideal. Also, is the facility continued care? May be time to move to higher level care or as mentioned hire a night nurse to monitor. Yes, they do fall asleep and miss falls, but even in your own home you would miss some things.

They said its assisted living. They need to hire a caretaker or go to a nursing home but most nursing homes only check very two hours at best so it still will be an issue.

I would imagine that most nursing homes do more overnight checks than would be done in a home environment. It stands to reason that no matter where Op puts her mom there is going to be a risk that her mom will fall and be on the ground for awhile before someone checks on her. Ugh, old age is hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are bringing in hospice care per the recommendation of her GP. It is not considered end of life care (a learning point for us--I had misunderstood this about hospice) but will mean she has someone with her 24/7. Until that is in place we are putting a mattress on the floor and will take turns staying with her. The mats are ordered. They were suggested as a good idea even after the hospice aid is in place. Thank you all for your input.

Hospice is not All day and night care.

I may be wrong, but I don't know that hospice offers lift assist or help with bathroom/bathing.

An aide will come in an hour or less a few days a week to help with bathing. A nurse will come a few times a week to check vitals. If she needs a higher level of care, you need to pay for an aide or nursing home (but care will not be better).

Since Op's mom is already in AL she is presumably already getting help with bathing, right? How is calling hospice in going to help Op's mom if her mom needs overnight assistance that the AL doesn't provide? Is the solution supposed to be to get the hospital bed and a fall mat and hire a night nurse to stay with Mom overnight?

It depends on how often the AL provides the bathing and other help. The nursing home we were at only did bathing twice a week so my loved one stunk most other days. Hospice was great as they came the other days. Hospital bed only helps with falls if she's sleeping, not if she's walking or getting out of bed. She needs a higher level of care with an aide or nursing home. Hospice does not help with over night or extended care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your physician is wrong. Hospice is end of life care. Hospital bed would be ideal. Also, is the facility continued care? May be time to move to higher level care or as mentioned hire a night nurse to monitor. Yes, they do fall asleep and miss falls, but even in your own home you would miss some things.

They said its assisted living. They need to hire a caretaker or go to a nursing home but most nursing homes only check very two hours at best so it still will be an issue.

I would imagine that most nursing homes do more overnight checks than would be done in a home environment. It stands to reason that no matter where Op puts her mom there is going to be a risk that her mom will fall and be on the ground for awhile before someone checks on her. Ugh, old age is hard.

They should but they don't. We spent years fighting with the nursing home over it. At best it was a every two hour check and we don't think those were done. Best bet is a camera but the nursing home we were at removed the one we put in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are bringing in hospice care per the recommendation of her GP. It is not considered end of life care (a learning point for us--I had misunderstood this about hospice) but will mean she has someone with her 24/7. Until that is in place we are putting a mattress on the floor and will take turns staying with her. The mats are ordered. They were suggested as a good idea even after the hospice aid is in place. Thank you all for your input.

Hospice is not All day and night care.

I may be wrong, but I don't know that hospice offers lift assist or help with bathroom/bathing.

An aide will come in an hour or less a few days a week to help with bathing. A nurse will come a few times a week to check vitals. If she needs a higher level of care, you need to pay for an aide or nursing home (but care will not be better).

Since Op's mom is already in AL she is presumably already getting help with bathing, right? How is calling hospice in going to help Op's mom if her mom needs overnight assistance that the AL doesn't provide? Is the solution supposed to be to get the hospital bed and a fall mat and hire a night nurse to stay with Mom overnight?

It depends on how often the AL provides the bathing and other help. The nursing home we were at only did bathing twice a week so my loved one stunk most other days. Hospice was great as they came the other days. Hospital bed only helps with falls if she's sleeping, not if she's walking or getting out of bed. She needs a higher level of care with an aide or nursing home. Hospice does not help with over night or extended care.

I agree that it does sound like she needs a higher level of care. Not sure why the physician suggested hospice as opposed to a nursing home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your physician is wrong. Hospice is end of life care. Hospital bed would be ideal. Also, is the facility continued care? May be time to move to higher level care or as mentioned hire a night nurse to monitor. Yes, they do fall asleep and miss falls, but even in your own home you would miss some things.

They said its assisted living. They need to hire a caretaker or go to a nursing home but most nursing homes only check very two hours at best so it still will be an issue.

I would imagine that most nursing homes do more overnight checks than would be done in a home environment. It stands to reason that no matter where Op puts her mom there is going to be a risk that her mom will fall and be on the ground for awhile before someone checks on her. Ugh, old age is hard.

They should but they don't. We spent years fighting with the nursing home over it. At best it was a every two hour check and we don't think those were done. Best bet is a camera but the nursing home we were at removed the one we put in.

That's awful but what environment would give them hourly checks? Even if they were at home living with family their family members need to sleep and if the person falls the family members need to be strong enough to physically assist them back up w/o hurting themselves in the process.

[Anonymous]

When I was growing up, most people in our neighborhood lived in multi-generational households. Typically a grandchild shared a bedroom with the frail elderly relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are bringing in hospice care per the recommendation of her GP. It is not considered end of life care (a learning point for us--I had misunderstood this about hospice) but will mean she has someone with her 24/7. Until that is in place we are putting a mattress on the floor and will take turns staying with her. The mats are ordered. They were suggested as a good idea even after the hospice aid is in place. Thank you all for your input.

Hospice is not All day and night care.

I may be wrong, but I don't know that hospice offers lift assist or help with bathroom/bathing.

An aide will come in an hour or less a few days a week to help with bathing. A nurse will come a few times a week to check vitals. If she needs a higher level of care, you need to pay for an aide or nursing home (but care will not be better).

Since Op's mom is already in AL she is presumably already getting help with bathing, right? How is calling hospice in going to help Op's mom if her mom needs overnight assistance that the AL doesn't provide? Is the solution supposed to be to get the hospital bed and a fall mat and hire a night nurse to stay with Mom overnight?

It depends on how often the AL provides the bathing and other help. The nursing home we were at only did bathing twice a week so my loved one stunk most other days. Hospice was great as they came the other days. Hospital bed only helps with falls if she's sleeping, not if she's walking or getting out of bed. She needs a higher level of care with an aide or nursing home. Hospice does not help with over night or extended care.

I agree that it does sound like she needs a higher level of care. Not sure why the physician suggested hospice as opposed to a nursing home.

Not all doctors know the fine details of what others do outside the office. They probably suggested it based off age and medicare pays for it. My sibling is a doctor and pretty clueless with this stuff and her recommendations so it becomes a huge debate as she thinks she knows it all and knows very little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up, most people in our neighborhood lived in multi-generational households. Typically a grandchild shared a bedroom with the frail elderly relative.

Ok, how is that helpful. Have you ever done 24/7 care for years? Its very hard without help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your physician is wrong. Hospice is end of life care. Hospital bed would be ideal. Also, is the facility continued care? May be time to move to higher level care or as mentioned hire a night nurse to monitor. Yes, they do fall asleep and miss falls, but even in your own home you would miss some things.

They said its assisted living. They need to hire a caretaker or go to a nursing home but most nursing homes only check very two hours at best so it still will be an issue.

I would imagine that most nursing homes do more overnight checks than would be done in a home environment. It stands to reason that no matter where Op puts her mom there is going to be a risk that her mom will fall and be on the ground for awhile before someone checks on her. Ugh, old age is hard.

They should but they don't. We spent years fighting with the nursing home over it. At best it was a every two hour check and we don't think those were done. Best bet is a camera but the nursing home we were at removed the one we put in.

That's awful but what environment would give them hourly checks? Even if they were at home living with family their family members need to sleep and if the person falls the family members need to be strong enough to physically assist them back up w/o hurting themselves in the process.

Private aide. We asked for hourly and were denied. We offered a camera and kindle for the nurses station and were denied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would put a thin mattress on the floor next to her bed.

That sounds like a tripping hazard

Yeah the assisted living place will never allow this. It’s likely a violation of safety and fire rules

Absolutely not true. They will allow it and comm mi pained like kedline sell special mats just for this purpose, they’re called fall mats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up, most people in our neighborhood lived in multi-generational households. Typically a grandchild shared a bedroom with the frail elderly relative.

Where did you grow up? I can say that I have never once heard of anything like this. Ever. You seriously think that children should be responsible for helping their elderly parents get up off the floor when they fall down and that children should be helping their elderly grandparents to the bathroom at night? Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would put a thin mattress on the floor next to her bed.

That sounds like a tripping hazard

Yeah the assisted living place will never allow this. It’s likely a violation of safety and fire rules

Absolutely not true. They will allow it and comm mi pained like kedline sell special mats just for this purpose, they’re called fall mats.

Ugh sorry typing too fast. They will allow it and companies like Medline sell them. They’re called fall mats.