Hello All! My mother in-law is being discharged this coming week from the hospital. She has been bedridden for a few weeks and needs to build strength in her legs back up and she currently needs assistance to walk.
My MIL lives in a group home with one other person and 2 staff members at all times (so pretty much 1:1 attention). If we put her in a rehab facility for the short-term, we risk losing her bed at the group home (she’s in Medicaid/Title 19). We were thinking about seeing if we have the option of a visiting Occupational Therapist/PT come to the group home and I was wondering if anyone had experience with this versus a Rehab center. The thing we struggle with is if she’d really get more rehab at a facility versus at home as when she had a compound fracture and was in a rehab facility she says she only worked with the rehab staff every other day (However her memory is not always correct).
Thanks in advance!
Ann
I recommend out patient/rehab facility depending on the needs. In a rehab facility activities are much more structured and each person has a specific plan for their rehab made by a Physical Therapist in concert with her surgeon. Her doctor gets regular reports of her progress.
My concern is MIL won’t get as much “push” to complete her exercises at her group home. Home PT is nothing like a rehab center’s exercises. At most she will get 3 sessions a week of 45-1 hour, ditto with home OT. That’s barely 6 hours per week.
All these factors should be considered in your decision. Good luck to you!
Her Baseline is stable movement with the ability to walk and stand with no equipment or assistance.
The compound fracture was from a few years ago which is healed (she was at inpatient rehab center for recovery).
The new need for rehab was based on her being bedridden for about 3 weeks due to toxic levels of lithium. She now needs to rebuild strength in her legs. She is processing well walking with a walker at the hospital with PT bad OT but will definitely need additional rehab.
Thanks again for your response!
Ann
the insurance company.
Rehab is available to come to the home. My dad had it at home rather than a rehab and did great with it. My mom had facility rehab more than once and then ongoing PT and OT at home for years. Her home therapist was great. I’ve read some negative things about it on this site. People have different experiences. I think it’s hard on the facility caregiver when the resident needs extra help but I certainly can understand your not wanting your MIL to lose her bed.
My MIL does suffer from mental health issues and currently is not on medication based on hospital observation that no medication is needed at this time (we feel like she may have been misdiagnosed in the past and administer medication that wasn’t necessary to treat what symptoms she did have which has led to multiple toxicity issues resulting in hospitalization so at this time we are open to holding off on medication.) We feel the group home would better handle if she were to fall into mental health episode versus a larger rehab facility).
If she is happy at the group home and CAN go there after hospital, then I vote for keeping her there and having OT/PT come there.
You do NOT want to lose her spot at the home, especially if she is happy there.
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