My mother is in a nursing home, in the regular long-term care side. Recently they have been wanting to change her to the lock-down unit. What would be needed to do that? Would they need some sort of paperwork or could they just move her whenever they want? Very confused.
Memory care units are built circular because the residents who are able to walk will be able to walk and be monitored by staff.
Check to see if the 'locked down' unit is circular and how engaged the residents are with activities, not just placed in front of a tv for entertainment and lessen monitoring by staff.
General a move to the "locked side" is done when a person tends to wander out of the facility, and poses a danger to self in doing so. As you can imagine this is a safety issue for your loved one. The fact is that some ALFs are now having "locked cottages" for those who don't really require the extra staffing, and who are fine on their own for the most part, but may tend to wander and become confused once out of their known environments.
This was the case at my brother's ALF which had unlocked cottages (where you were required to sign out when leaving and back in when returning), locked cottages and a larger cottage which was long term MC and better staffed as well as locked.
Care facilities are always changing, so do discuss by phone or in person with the facility involved in the care of your Mom. You'll get best answers from them. And I wish you the best.
If they think she needs it, they may require you to move her (assuming that you're her POA) and if you refuse I wonder if they'd say OK but it's time for her to leave then. I assume she has dementia and perhaps she has progressed too much to handle? Hard to know since you don't want to talk about it.
Good luck.
A lock down unit is no different than you or I locking our houses during the day. Residents are free to roam around the unit but cannot leave that unit without someone being with them that are family or staff.
My Dad needed to move into Memory Care as he was experiencing what is called "sundowning" which means he tends to become confused late in the afternoon and into the evening. Dad would climb into his "time machine" and go back to the 1940's. He was also trying to leave the building [which wasn't a lock down] during the night.