1. Mom was successfully placed in a great Nursing Home on Long Island this April. Well run, friendly staff, beautiful grounds...
2. Took some acclimation. Doing great now with help from Aricept. Not Alzheimers. 87 y.o, plus MBI from repeated falls & head injuries. Does not remember the past 10 years. Knows family members and her new environment.
3. Brother lives 5 minutes away and sees her almost on a daily basis. Good guy.
4. PROBLEM: -They delayed getting her ambulatory after arm fracture healed bec. she lacks balance even with a walker and could topple backwards. She can walk.
SO she spends way too much time in a wheelchair, to the point that she requests that they pull her from the great "community space" room and let her lie down in her bed because her back hurts her from so much sitting. My brother walks her at every opportunity.
Can he demand a written plan from staff to guarantee a daily quota of individual attention for her involving say 30 minutes of assisted walking down the halls? Must this be couched as a therapy order?
Second, she is a naysayer, meaning, even before all this she would turn down requests to go out to eat with is or favors be done for her. Case in point, they have nice courtyard - garden areas with raised boxes and she is growing tomato and pepper plant with my brother's help. They do not get watered by anyone but him.
How do we get the staff to be more proactive with her needs and take her out daily to visit with her garden - she was an avid gardener........
Brother is a charmer and has a great relationship with staff but not enough is being done for her anyway.....
Family should be invited to and attending regularly scheduled "care meetings" which are held every 60-90 days. That's the time to address these issues. Yes, you should request a "walking protocol". As for attendi g activities, get them to say " now it's time to go out to the garden" rather than "qould you like to...?"
Remember, they can't make her do anything she refuses to do.
Also, make sure she doesnt have compression fractures in her spine. Thise turned out to be the source of a lot of my mom's lying down.
Let us know how it goes!