Where I can get an assessment done by a geriatric neurologist?

I don't know if your elderly loved one is a Veteran or not. My father who is 83 yrs old has been diagnosed with Dementia by his Primary Veteran Doctor. Once this was done, his doctor referred him to The Mental health department for further evaluation. My father has gone through a series of physical and mental tests by the Mental health dept. They also prescribed him medication to slow the progress down, not cure. Hope this may help you and your loved one.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell from a Google search, isn't it? Hmmm.....

You could ask your loved one's Dr.'s office what they think is the top NH in the area.

If you go to church make an appointment with the pastor/priest and ask him. Part of his ministry is reaching out to those in NH's. He would know of some very nice places.

Put the answer out to friends and family and have them help gather information. See what comes back. If you're on Facebook you could pose the question on Facebook as well.

Try a narrow search on Google. Start with the most expensive NH and work your way down. Google "most expensive nursing home in (zip code)".

I have a patient at the best nursing home ("skilled medical facility") I've ever seen. It's very expensive and offers independent living and assisted living as well as the nursing home and a memory care unit. It's beautifully decorated, no odor, offers many recreational activities and boasts a full rehab wing. However, it is still a nursing home that is short on staff with their residents being just one among many in an institutional style living arrangement.

The reason for getting a neuropsych done is to measure where the patient is in terms of cognitive function and to rule out other causes. there are an awful lot of other medical conditions that can mimic dementia and you want to make sure that you're not looking at something like that. Also, based on a Minimental, my mom is fine--15/15 last month! She can't reason her way out of a paper bag, thinks all sorts of delusional things about floods and storms and can't tell you what pill she's taking for what. We got a geri neuropsych BEFORE she had a stroke and boy, was it helpful to have that baseline of what was no longer working.

OHSU Brain Institute: Is this anywhere near you? If you have a top notch rehab place near you, they often do geriatric neuropsychs. Ditto University Hospitals that have residency programs (for training doctors) in neurology and neuropsychology. About Memory care; in my experience, the Medicare.gov stars don't mean as much as getting a feel for the place and the staff and observing how they handle dementia patients. One top rated place seemed to have no plan in place at all. Another, less highly rated, had a whole system of regular AL, "Lighthouse" for mild dementia and "Harbour" for end stage. Each had its own activities and schedules.

Two different questions, yes? Neurological assessment and name of a top memory facility (by which, I'm assuming you mean nursing home). Mom's 87. Personally, I wouldn't waste time and energy having a neurological assessment done on her unless I needed her to sign a legal document. Her dementia is what it is. I don't care what caused it. I know it's progressive. *shrug* (Others will have good advice for you in that department, I'm sure.)

As to a great memory care facility. I think the best recommendation you can get on a facility comes from someone who has family or a good friend placed in one for the same purpose. That's how I chose mom's for rehab. Shirt-tail family's 102-year-old aunt was on Lexington Schaumburg's memory care floor; she'd been there for 5 years -- on Medicaid. Her family is soooo pleased with the care she gets, even though she's on the taxpayer's cheap dime. ;) I placed mom there, and I sure wasn't disappointed.

Next, I'd check this site: http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html

Medicare rates nursing homes based on Overall Rating, Cleanliness, Staffing and Quality Measures. Few are perfect, but the marginal ones stick out like sore thumbs. Can save you a great deal of time.

Since I was thinking of placing mom on this particular home's memory care floor, I took a complete tour (beyond the rehab floor she stayed in for almost 3 months). Here are the things that were important to me:

The had awesome staffing stats. If I remember correctly, it was one nurse/nurse's aid for every three patients (on the memory floor, the only one I cared about).

By state law, they were required to have eight different group activities for people every day. Wow! Every single patient was dressed in street clothes every single day before breakfast. Staff noted what they were wearing on a Morning Form so that they could be easily found if they wandered about the floor...which some of them did...into other people's rooms and into their beds! They did an hourly check on every patient's location. One staff member being responsible for three patients.

The elevator from its third-floor location had a password protected up/down button. Every patient wore a signal bracelet. If a visitor (as an example) accidentally let a patient ride along (they can be quite nonchalant and believable sometimes), the bracelet sounded an alarm. Elopement Risks (as they called them) couldn't get off the floor unescorted.

While I was there, there was a lady sitting at a table near the nurses' station. She was folding laundry. The Director told me that was her daily job. She would spend an hour folding a few piles of clothes that staff kept there just for that purpose. That was her bliss.

The rooms were lovely, shared or private. Beautiful gardens and private patios in the middle of downtown. Each different floor (rehab/nursing/memory) had at least one entertainment program once a week to which all memory care residents were escorted as appropriate. The food was pretty darned good and offered choice at every meal. I won't go on-and-on, but those are some of the things I was so impressed with that I wouldn't have hesitated to place mom there. Cost $8,200 a month with a few extra charges.

Here's a link on how to evaluate memory care units. I hope you find it helpful. It's not lost on me that one of the things they say is that every patient should have a neurological evaluation. So much for Maggie. ;)

http://www.elderbranch.com/blog/selecting-a-memory-care-facility/

Same here, needed in Lexington Ky area.