My cousin is in an Assisted Living facility. A few days per week she refuses to get out of bed until near noon. She just wants to sleep in and not get dressed or take her meds until she feels like it. She has significant dementia. How would the staff in a Dementia Unit handle this situation? She will take the meds, but only when she's up and ready to start her day.
I have met with the team at the ALF to discuss the matter. We have developed a plan to deal with this, including getting her on antidepressants. She seems depressed and has told me she is depressed. I hope the meds with help, but she has liked to sleep in until late for most of her life. I can't see it changing now.
I'm just curious as to what happens if the meds don't work and she has to go to a Dementia Unit. Does anyone know? Do they just talk with the person at length or allow them to stay in bed until they are ready to get up? Wouldn't this come under palliative care?
Many high end facility even here in Florida can be 10:1 and if a worker calls out sick, the ratio goes higher!! Trying to care for a patient with dementia or memory loss and who refuses care is draining especially if your shift ends at 8 am. I usually start about 6:45a turning on the light and having short discussions, asking her advice on outfit. Well this use to work! Now she has become rude and demands to be left alone. Next I pretend I am speaking with her son. And she doesn't care. She would even speak to him and promise to get up , then doesn't. By this time my shift ends, and I have to leave the patient by herself, she is ALF, oxygen....in this case the patient need to have a private aide to come during the day. (Option 1) Hope this is insightful.
What I have observed in Memory Care is that the residents who can no longer assist with moving are placed in either a wheelchair or a gerichair. (Gerichair is like a recliner on wheels. It slants back. It allows people who can't hold themselves up to sit and be moved to another room. They sometimes have a tray in front that helps support the person.) I'm not sure who you might contact about it. It may be covered by insurance. Maybe, you'll get some more responses here.
Right now her getting up in the mornings seems to be the only issue. She loves it there, but if the antidepressants don't help her then she'll have to go to a Dementia facility. I really wish it could be avoided, but they can't keep her there with her doing that.
I'm just curious as to what a Dementia Unit facility would do to get her up in the mornings. If she refuses, do they force her? She can't be the only patient like this.
People in assisted living are pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to sleeping in.