My father is at an Assisted Living Memory Care facility in Kingsland GA. They had to evacuate for the hurricane and my father who has dementia and Parkinson's is giving them problems at the temporary facility. The Administrator just called and mentioned that we need to sit down and discuss sending my dad to something called "Medication Study". To me it sounds like a reason to pump more medication into him to make life easier on their staff instead of making things better for my father. This sounds like a staff training problem and their answer is to medicate my father so they don't have to deal with him. Has anyone here had to place their parents through a Medication Study?
I have spoken to an Elder Attorney and will sit down with them next week again.
If my parents was in an emergency situation, I'd sure as shooting want calming meds for them.
In every ALF, ILF or SNF I went into, posted on the walls in multiple places are signs with the state ombudsman's telephone number...it is a resource for the residents to voice their concerns/complaints to. You could try that before you assume the expense of the elder care attorney.
Btw, when I worked the floor in a facility, saw many patients asked to leave the facility because of family members behaviors.
These days I have full time care of my father who has dementia, hallucinations, mania and other assorted health problems from his days in Vietnam handling agent orange...I don't want him to be doped up to the gills like he was when he got out of a Geri psych facility(because he was violent) and was placed in my care. But I'm here with him 24/7 in order to have that happen. Facilities don't have enough staff for patients requiring one on one. Can you take care of your father to make this happen? Or pay someone to?
It wasn't that we didn't want to take the time to calm her down; it was that NOTHING calmed her down. And if it did, she became anxious about something else.
When one's brain is broken, one often needs meds to even things out. The meds my mom was on, even after her stroke when she developed vascular dementia, never made her dopey or sleepy; they allowed her to be calm, happy and interactive, most of the time.