Reply to Can AL facility force someone to be wheelchair bound because they are a fall risk?

Forum Index » Eldercare

Reply to "Can AL facility force someone to be wheelchair bound because they are a fall risk?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I can't believe I'm asking this question because it seems absurd to me.  My father has advanced vascular dementia and lives in a memory care/AL facility.  The dementia does affect his balance and ability to follow instructions and he never mastered using a walker.  Because he won't follow directions consistently they won't give him any more PT and OT.  I think he could use one of those "roller" walkers because he always was great with a shopping cart, but they don't allow those.

He clearly has the strength to stand up because he keeps doing it on a regular basis when the aides are looking the other direction. The facility says he is a fall risk and because its unsafe for him and for his caregivers, they no longer will let him try to stand up and walk. They try to keep him all day in a wheelchair that is reclined back so that he can't get up.  He so wants to get up and walk around and the lack of exercise is contributing to his anxiety.

I have been arguing that since he's going to keep trying to stand up each chance he has, they should be working to try to make that safer for everyone - not trying to stop him.  But I have been hitting a brick wall.  Am I unreasonable here?  Any other suggestions on strategies to take here would be appreciated.  I recognize that falls are a big issue and these facilities are risk adverse, but this seems like both a cruel and unproductive approach (I guess until he loses the will to live and just stops trying to stand?).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics