Hello all,
My Dad has been in a Care Home since he broke his Hip last year and his moderate Altzeimers worstened. He is happy in the Home and generally we are happy with the care he receives. However, he is getting more stubborn about bathing and changing his clothes. He has had his current clothes on for 3 weeks now. He should have assitance to wash and dress himself, but he makes sure he is up and dressed before any of the Carers get to him! Suggestions for him to change his clothes are met with straight refusal, and if they attempt to remove them when (and if) they can get him to have a bath, he gets angry. He told me that they have a "special machine" on the premisis and his clothes are removed from his Zimmer, where he hangs them, as he sleeps, and put back there, all clean, before he wakes up!! If we find dirty clothes in his room we try to put them in his laundry hamper without him noticing, but 9 times out of 10 he must notice them later as Mum will find the items back in his drawer/wardrobe later in the week.
I have asked the home to try to ensure that he changes his clothes once a week, and, if possible, bathed, but we keep coming back to this point again.
Has anyone else experienced something similar in a Care Home environment? I cannot understand how they cannot find a solution to this as it is a re-occuring theme month after month. Am I being unreasonable to ask them to treat this as a problem, or am I right to expect that they should have the expertise to handle this and find a solution that we are all happy with? I am totally in agreement with them that he should not be put in a position where he feels uncomfortable, anxious or forced into something he does not want to do, but sad to say it almost feels like they are using it as an excuse not to deal with this matter? My Mum finds it really hard as she visits 3 times a week and to keep seeing him in the same dirty clothes is very upsetting for her as he was always a very smartly dressed man...
My Dad has been in a Care Home since he broke his Hip last year and his moderate Altzeimers worstened. He is happy in the Home and generally we are happy with the care he receives. However, he is getting more stubborn about bathing and changing his clothes. He has had his current clothes on for 3 weeks now. He should have assitance to wash and dress himself, but he makes sure he is up and dressed before any of the Carers get to him! Suggestions for him to change his clothes are met with straight refusal, and if they attempt to remove them when (and if) they can get him to have a bath, he gets angry. He told me that they have a "special machine" on the premisis and his clothes are removed from his Zimmer, where he hangs them, as he sleeps, and put back there, all clean, before he wakes up!! If we find dirty clothes in his room we try to put them in his laundry hamper without him noticing, but 9 times out of 10 he must notice them later as Mum will find the items back in his drawer/wardrobe later in the week.
I have asked the home to try to ensure that he changes his clothes once a week, and, if possible, bathed, but we keep coming back to this point again.
Has anyone else experienced something similar in a Care Home environment? I cannot understand how they cannot find a solution to this as it is a re-occuring theme month after month. Am I being unreasonable to ask them to treat this as a problem, or am I right to expect that they should have the expertise to handle this and find a solution that we are all happy with? I am totally in agreement with them that he should not be put in a position where he feels uncomfortable, anxious or forced into something he does not want to do, but sad to say it almost feels like they are using it as an excuse not to deal with this matter? My Mum finds it really hard as she visits 3 times a week and to keep seeing him in the same dirty clothes is very upsetting for her as he was always a very smartly dressed man...