My mother has been in a nursing home for seven months. She was admitted for delirium due to UTI. She has had these issues off and on for two years. When I tried to explain my mother's condition, I was told that this doesn't happen. They said people don't get dementia that comes and goes. They told me dementia comes and stays and just gets worse. I have been told repeatedly by healthcare professionals outside this facility about the link between infections and delirium/dementia. I have also found countless online articles about this condition but they seem to be in denial that it is a viable condition.
After she was there for a month, in a Gerry chair, in a diaper, I called and asked to have the doctor perform a urinalysis. They found the infection and then gave her Cipro and within a week, her mental state cleared up and she started acting rationally. This facility did not attempt physical therapy for three weeks until I started begging them to do it. My mother has been in two other facilities previously that acknowledged her being prone to infections and delirium. They both had her treated, rehabilitated and released way under the Medicare 90 day period.
This facility would not allow my mother to sign herself out and labelled her as "mentally incompetent". Three months ago, the social worker there called me and told me their corporation was filing for legal guardianship over her but that she had been in the process of working up my mother's discharge paperwork when she was told. This was three months ago. My mother had reached and passed the requirements for recovery and the facility will not allow her to go home. The company that owns the facility put a stop to her being discharged. Their psychiatrist, who has only done a mini mental exam wrote up and submitted as Exhibit A, a competency evaluation wherein he describes her as "severely impaired" on ALL levels. He describes her as a borderline vegetable. Most of the items on the list are completely false. He has only spoken with my mother for 10-15 minutes in 7 months. There was a hearing date set up (April 28) and my mother's attorney was able to get a continuance because I had made an appointment with a NeuroPsychologist to have her get an impartial competency evaluation which was done and that doctor evaluated her for almost three hours and found her not only competent but said that she currently shows no symptoms or signs of dementia.
Now that my mother has documentation and an evaluation from this doctor saying that she is mentally competent, does the company that owns the nursing home have a case? The only "evidence" they have is the evaluation from their psychiatrist. They are not seeking guardianship over her "person". They "generously" offer that to me and only want guardianship over her income. I want guardianship over her health because I want to be able to get her out of there. I believe they are doing this only to collect money off of her (they currently take all of her social security check) when she goes home. I think they are doing this so they can send her home and keep her money at the same time. I also feel that at this time, her being there is now detrimental to her health.
The results of the evaluation were sent to my mother's attorney a week ago and she told me to have my mother sign a release form so that I could get a copy of it. She also told me that she sent a copy to the attorney who represents the company that owns the nursing home and suggested they withdraw their petition for guardianship. I still have this fear that they are going to try and pull something else to get my mother's social security check. They still will not allow her to go home and are dragging her (and our family) through all of this legal process for her to fight to just get her own life back to normal. She is totally recovered and I think they are forcing her to live there so that they can keep control over her. If she goes home, her income will revert back to her and it may be more difficult for them to wrestle it away from her again. My mother's attorney says she cannot do the P.O.A. now because of this litigation.
Would it be wise to attempt to help her try to sign out A.M.A. using the evaluation results? They haven't let her leave by telling her she is mentally incompetent and cannot make that decision. Would it make things worse for her if she tried to sign out again? If she were truly severely mentally impaired, I wouldn't have much of a problem with what they are doing but it infuriates me the way they have delayed her recover, labelled her "mentally incompetent" when she is not in order to get their talons into her social security check (the only asset and income she has). This is financial abuse of the elderly.
Now that your mother is safely elsewhere, I would write to the State Ombudsman, the Joint Commission on NH accreditation and your local elected officials to tell your mother's story.
This is a disgrace and this corporation and its employees should be called out on it!