Dear Jazzy

I'm afraid I can't help with the problem, just wanted you to offer my sympathy. It must be awful for your mum, shut in with this terrible fear, unable to hear or see much. I can only imagine what she is going through.

But I can also see how distressing it can be for other residents.

I do hope you can get some medication sorted out that will have a longer-lasting effect. Hopefully some other members will be able to help.

Love,

 

Hello Jazzy, sorry I can not offer you any advice but I can see the pain this is causing you, you are doing your very best trying to seek a solution, and your mum is lucky to have you there for her. Thinking of you, take care. Taffy.

 

Dear Jazzy, if your mother has no hearing, very poor vision and Alzheimers, I`m not surprised she is noisy.

Poor woman has no idea of the noise she`s making or how distressing it is for others.

It is impossible for anyone to imagine her world, she must be terrified.

I do wish her medication could be made more effective, to give her some peace at least.

Your only consolation is your trust in the staff and the consultant to do their best for your mum.

Take care.

Love

 

Dear Jazzy

I know exactly how you feel your mum sounds just the same as mine and it is very distressing to see, my mum can see very little and is quite deaf and disabled so she is anxious and frightened all the time the home are doing their best for her they let her phone me at times if she is very anxious about certain things. Mum has been in the home 3 months now and I am quite pleased with the care I just wish things could be different.

Linda

 

Hi Jazzy.

I hope your mum is used to wearing a hearing aid, long term, and it`s not going to be something new for her.

It has been impossible for me to accept a hearing aid, even a digital one, as everything is far too loud and I just can`t stand it.

Sorry if I`ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

Love

 

When my Mum first went into the Nursing Home, she was very distressed and cried all the time. A cuddly soft toy dog seemed to offer some comfort-I had bought it for her when her real dog died. A soft blanket or a colourful knitted blanket might also help a little. Mum now has a friend in the NH and they sit together to keep each other company.
My Mum is also hard of hearing and has poor vision now.
Kayla

 

Just wanted you to know you have my profound sympathy and I hope for everyone's sake that a medical solution is found ASAP. Thinking of you and sending you my warmest wishes.

 

Hello,
the same has been happening to GrandMother. Since a couple of weeks she is very loud, sometimes she hurt other people and.... this morning she "escaped".
Police find her arount while she was walking on the road. When they understood she wasn't "normal" they called the nursing home asking if they had lost a person.

As soon as we arrived to the nursing home for talking to the doctor, she told me "I went out for ironing. I talked to a lady... ".

She never escaped before... What's we should expect in future?

 

smogthecat: the first thing you need to do is find out exactly how she came to escape! The nursing home should have some method to ensure that people don't wander off: doors that only open with a code etc. I think wandering is a stage that people go through, and once started it will be a while before they stop. I wouldn't place any reliance on your grandmother's poor memory stopping future excursions: although they may not remember what they had for breakfast (or even if they had breakfast) I'm willing to bet that a potential escape route may well be remembered (goodness knows why). I would be even more concerned that they hadn't noticed she'd gone missing.

Jennifer

 

Unfortunately they have the "no panic" door: door you open pushing the big handle. She learn how to open and... she went out. The main door on the ground floor is alway open as the gate....

Nurses told us she was set on the table having breakfast then... nobody noticed she "disappared"
When the police phoned us they check is someone of the 20 people was missing and they noticed Antonietta wasn't there.
The they phoed us. It was 10 am. So... I'm wondering how long she stayed outside without nobody notice it? I bet they have breakfast around 8am so...

 

Hello Smog The Cat,

My mother was always running away from her day care. It as so bad that when we were looking for suitable care homes, many wouldn`t accept her because she was too much of a liability.

Unfortunately the only places deemed suitable were EMI units, secure units for the Elderly Mentally Infirm. I do not know whether this type of unit is available to your Grandmother, but if she is going to keep running away, this is probably what she needs.

Take care

 

She is in the "secure unit" of the nursing home. And this is scaring me... I suppose the "secure unit" must be "secure" and people can't open doors and go away...

We are waiting to move her in a nursing home with a specilized "Alzheimer unit". it is near my home and it's less expensive too but... the waiting list is very long. We are in the waiting list since September 2005...

 

Dear SmogTheCat,

Oh dear, I`m so sorry, that`s dreadful.

I hope you have let the home know, in no uncertain terms, how ineffective their security measures are, and they have had the sense to review them.

 

Dear Smogthecat

They obviously have a different idea of what "secure" means! Under no circumstances would a door that can be opened simply by pushing a large handle come under my definition of secure, no matter how heavy it was. It sounds a lot like a fire door: even in commerical establishments where those have to be left unlocked for safety reasons, they are very frequently alarmed so that opening them results in a loud blaring alarm so that whoever has gone through them can be checked. I agree with Sylvia that this is totally unacceptable. Is there a body that oversees nursing homes in Italy? In your situation I would be complaining long and hard to anyone who would listen.

Jennifer