Hi,
My Father has Alzheimers etc - Can't walk unaided, 4 double carer visits per day and happy at home. He has a thing that he wants to sit on the floor, he does it by shuffling to the edge of the chair, slides off the edge and sits on the floor. Sometimes he will then roll from the sitting position to one side. He does this many times in a given week. Never once has he hurt himself, he just happens to prefer sitting on the floor sometimes.
This in itself is not an issue, problem is that the carer company has a protocol of "patient on floor equals ambulance" under no circumstances are the carers allowed to pick them up using the slings, sling sheet and crane which is there. It is to be used to transfer from the chair to bed or bed to chair only. They say it is not an issue of whether he has hurt himself. They say only the ambulance staff have the systems and means of getting someone up from the floor (seated or laying) up into a chair.
Is this a carer company policy issue - an equipment issue - or something else? Are all carer companies the same, I don't want to change them because of this single point but its becoming an issue now as he wants to sit on the floor more frequently (no underlying problems, pressure sores etc).
We can't strap him in of course, tilting him back a bit we've tried - any more would be either a fall or hurt his neck looking forwards - He likes being at home and I wonder how they may be better equipped to deal with this in a care home (if at all). I can't think they would put him on 24 hour surveillance and even then when he's on the floor what would they do that our carers double handed cannot. Chemical cosh?
Sorry about the ramble but want to get all the details out there in the hope someone will have dealt with this before - if not, perhaps all other carer companies would just reseat him once established that he has not fallen, but slid off the chair which is pretty much what this amounts to given the kit is there.
My Father has Alzheimers etc - Can't walk unaided, 4 double carer visits per day and happy at home. He has a thing that he wants to sit on the floor, he does it by shuffling to the edge of the chair, slides off the edge and sits on the floor. Sometimes he will then roll from the sitting position to one side. He does this many times in a given week. Never once has he hurt himself, he just happens to prefer sitting on the floor sometimes.
This in itself is not an issue, problem is that the carer company has a protocol of "patient on floor equals ambulance" under no circumstances are the carers allowed to pick them up using the slings, sling sheet and crane which is there. It is to be used to transfer from the chair to bed or bed to chair only. They say it is not an issue of whether he has hurt himself. They say only the ambulance staff have the systems and means of getting someone up from the floor (seated or laying) up into a chair.
Is this a carer company policy issue - an equipment issue - or something else? Are all carer companies the same, I don't want to change them because of this single point but its becoming an issue now as he wants to sit on the floor more frequently (no underlying problems, pressure sores etc).
We can't strap him in of course, tilting him back a bit we've tried - any more would be either a fall or hurt his neck looking forwards - He likes being at home and I wonder how they may be better equipped to deal with this in a care home (if at all). I can't think they would put him on 24 hour surveillance and even then when he's on the floor what would they do that our carers double handed cannot. Chemical cosh?
Sorry about the ramble but want to get all the details out there in the hope someone will have dealt with this before - if not, perhaps all other carer companies would just reseat him once established that he has not fallen, but slid off the chair which is pretty much what this amounts to given the kit is there.
