My husband is in a NH, but I am going through a lot. Remember me? They wanted to transfer him. I thought the story was ended with the intervention of the Ombudsman, but there is more. It is a very hard situation visiting him, listening to the Social Services people describing me the worst scenario because of his aggressive behavior, "Baker Act", "Psych tests", "isolation", etc.... I do not clean after him, I do not change diapers, but I can not sleep just thinking about what is going to happen every time the telephone rings. Am I a caregiver?
I have been a Caregiver since I was 19. I am now 32, and Caregiver to 2 parents. My siblings live 1500 miles away and won't help me. I moved with my parents, because I knew something might happen. I gave up a job I loved and took a $750 a month pay cut, please benefits.
Yes, you are a Caregiver, no matter what people say. You are amazing, and God Bless you for what you are doing.
I researched " What Does it Mean to Be "Baker Acted"?
google it
This may help you to understand.
A person can't be forced into a involuntary medical evaluation, Florida has a way about doing this and that's called the "Baker Act"
Anyway you look at it, I take my hat off to all the caregivers out there. ... Because that's as close as we'll ever get to sainthood.
P.S.: By "NH" do you mean "nursing home?"
I also agree with "reindeermama " statement in the first paragraph. From my experience some facilities are not use to loving caring family members nor having someone stay on them about what is and is not right. You and your husband have legal rights and it should be in the contract signed.
I like to ask if your husband is in a nursing home or home care. I only ask this because my experience with nuring homes are not to my liking. To many clients and not enough help. Senior Home Cares, are able to give more attention to the client, because there are less clients to care for. My brother was in a facility and there were 21 clients to every 1 staff member. I had to be there everyday and I tell you I was not happy with the service or care he got.
I'm not sure what state you live in, but my sister once owner now manager of a Senior Home Care - cares for her clients as if they were family. They love her and she does everything for them and I mean everything. Even the caregivers she hires have to have the same quality of loving care. If you are in AZ, we be glad to give you information.
If he is aggressive ask them to do an emergency psych.. eval. on him. They will put him into a psych. facility where specialist can see him. This will provide him with medications that most likely will curb this behavior and then he can be transferred back to the NH.
Please make it better on yourself. I know you don't want to have a loved one go through this, but it might take care of your problem. My aunt had a psych eval. and they could her medicine to smooth out her moods. This is basically what they want you to approve. It is really not a bad thing. If he is aggressive, he, like my Aunt might be striking out and hitting other residents or the nurses.
orange park florida alzheimer's association
http://www.alz.org/cnfl/in_my_community_support.asp