Looking for a Care Home

[FinnyJD]

Hi All,

My Dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for nearly 6 years now, and has been cared for at home by my mother with support from the rest of the family. He has now reached a stage where he is now very docile and spends all his time just sitting in his chair. He has been in hospital for a few weeks after a small stroke, and we are now looking for a residential home for him as he is now needing too much care for my elderly and disabled mother to manage.
We feel that he doesn't really need specialist alzheimer's care as he is now so docile and immobile. He just really needs feeding, cleaning etc type of care and as I say doesn't wander or get aggressive or anything. But we have just been told that an ordinary residential home isn't allowed to take him, simply because he has the diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Apparently he must go into a home that has been designated as an Alzheimer's care home. This severely limits our choices of homes as there is only one or maybe two in the area. The nursing staff at the hospital think he would be better in an ordinary residential home as he responds very well to other patients on his ward taking an interest in him.
It seems to me that the system is looking at him first and foremost as an Alzheimer's patient rather than a patient in his own right with his own particular set of needs.
Has anyone got any suggestions of what we can do about this or any other advice on finding a good home for him?
Thanks
Jxxx

 

[Kathleen]

Good Morning to you

Although it is said that residential homes don't take people with Alzheimers it is not always the case.

I agree totally that it is wrong to put our loved ones into a box marked AD Patient, they are all individuals and the nature of the disease means each person is unique in the way they are at any given time.

The best advice I can offer is for you to ring round homes yourself and have a chat about your Dad to them. Mum was in a private residential home for a few months and that worked wonderfully until she began wandering off and was a danger to herself. If she had not been a wanderer they would have kept her there, I know as I used to work there. Others there were confused too, so it is not unknown for rest homes to care for people with fairly high degrees of dependency.

As far as I know as long as the nursing element is low i.e. the person is mobile and continence is controlled, some rest homes, usually private ones, will take them.

Wherever your Dad goes it is going to be for a trial period and as his needs change he may need to move which is pretty traumatic sometimes so it is worth asking how the home feel about incontinence, feeding supervision etc.

Get on the phone, it is always worth a try. Good luck to you all.

Kathleen
xx

 

[connie]

Lionel was not permanently in a home, but for 3 years had his respite in a private residential retirement home.

They liked Lionel and he responded to staff and guests alike. Don't know if this would work full time, suppose it just depends on level of care needed. Good luck for the future, Connie