My 85 year old father has been at a Board and Care for 30 days and recently he suspected they drugged him because he believed he slept for two days. Also, my brother said he was concerned because when he spoke to my father by phone my father was having difficulty staying awake and was slurring his words. Immediately the next day my brother moved him from the Board and Care but not without literally a big scene by the male caregiver. The male caregiver laid across my fathers chair trying to prevent him from removing any of my fathers items along with yelling and grabbing my brother!
Owner of home called me with a different version saying my brother caused the scene and reminded me of the 30 day notice in the contract and that I would owe next months rent.
If I wake my mom from a sound sleep (during the day), she sounds drunk, with slurred speech. I can tell she's been sleeping. She's had periods of sleeping a lot, unrelated to being given a sedative. My mom also has no short-term memory, so she'll say she hasn't been told something when I know she's been told multiple times, because I'm the one who's told her. So what seniors report and what reality is can be two very different things. Not intentionally on their part, but because their brains aren't working right.
If your dad has mild cognitive decline, you need to observe him very closely, because those symptoms can come and go from day to day or even hour to hour. So did the home give him a sedative? Possibly. But I think there's a strong possibility that your dad simply had a bad day and that's what happened. It sounds like it's time to really read about the meds he's on (side effects) and get a good handle on what his mild cognitive impairment looks like from day-to-day.
If you have proof.....real proof....of wrongdoing contact a lawyer before you decide to just not pay the rent.
You should get him to his doctor and report his symptoms; slurring, reporting that he slept for two days. You might want to check with the board and care home about what they objectively observed about your dad5symptoms while he was there. Do they alert families if patients are behaving oddly?
If yyour dad is going to be cared for in a facility, family has to develop a trusting relationship with the caregivers, and the caregivers need to know when to call and report a problem. I don't know if it's worthwhile to try to backtrack and see if this can actually be a good setting for dad. Where is he being cared for now? Is that working?
Be sure to follow the termination conditions, such as giving notice by certified mail, hand delivered, or whatever is specified. If the terms and conditions aren't followed ver batim, the facility might claim it didn't have proper notice in compliance with the contract and attempt to continue charging you.
If you decide to send an amended notice, and if you're required to specify a reason, you might consider something more general like "inadequate care", which is more broad and could include more than the suspected administration of a sedative.
The staff member who tried to prevent your brother from access to your father's things could fall in a category of "inadequately trained staff", or "belligerent staff", but you want to be careful about making those accusations because it's a "he said, he said" situation.
However, if he threatened your brother, that raises the issue from uncooperative to confrontational. But the issue is proof, unless your brother recorded the incident.
The more general reasons for leaving also give you latitude if you do discover after the next doctor's appointment that something was amiss when your father's behavior changed.
In addition, because it's more general, it could be more damaging to the facility than administration of a sedative which would be hard to prove unless the residue of it remains in a person's system for sometime after administration.
Whatever they're threatening, they certainly don't want bad publicity, so you can also hold that consideration in abeyance if they create further problems.
Often, the story from the patient may not be accurate. They don't mean to tell false stories, but they say what they believe, and it may be wrong. My cousin thought that her doctor slept on a couch the lobby of her Memory Care facility. She also reported residents who had no legs walked. So, it's a good idea to investigate and confirm. Your dad could eventually say something about you that is not true. I'd be prepared for that.
In your profile, you say the Senior Advisor recommended the home for your dad. If there was reason for that, then wouldn't he still be in need of that care? I'd be wary of just assuming that checking on him while he lives alone is adequate.
Of course, if your dad was treated improperly, it should be addressed. There should be a log completed by the Med Tech as to what medication your father was given.
The important groundwork that you need to do at this point, is to get your brother educated and accepting of your father's cognitive issues, and what that looks like. And what "mental status changes" look like and that they are cause to call the treating doctor, not accept Dad's explanation for what's causing them.
If the error was made at the doctor's office, ask them to pay the 30 days. If they decline, you may need to contact an attorney who will in turn contact the malpractice carrier for the doctor and his staff.
I don't know about the contract aspect of what happened, but we need more information to give you good answers.
If that particular med was listed in the med list at the board and care facility, staff should absolutely have double checked it before administering it. If it hadn't been given before, presumably it wouldn't have been on the med list. The question then would be whether or not the staff who received and administered it realized it wasn't appropriate for the situation.
I agree with AKDaughter; her suggestion of resolution is a practical and wise one.
If you're thinking about a higher level of action, such as legal, against the board and care facility, I doubt if this one incident would support litigation. I'm just mentioning this because many people would be thinking along that line.
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