Mum declining after short time in nursing home.

[Drewster3012]

Hi there I'm new to this so bare with me. My mum is 87 and has had alzheimers for the past 16 years. She's lived at home on her own apart from the past 3 years she accepted a care package for meds and lunch.
She recently fell and fractured her hip and was in hospital for 3 weeks and has now gone into a nursing home which specialises in dementia. It's initially a trial to see how she gets on. It has been a very emotional time, guilt, sadness and a part of acceptance of current situation. Mum ideally would have been better in a residential home where people would be able to be more sociable but as she gets up at night the local residential homes declined her. She is now in a nursing home, however pretty much all of the patients don't speak and are unable to chat. My mum likes to chat and be sociable so hadn't found this easy. She has been in there a week and she seems to be declining where she is starting to be unable to string her sentences together properly. She's very tired and at times spaced out a bit.
The social worker wants us to make a decision on a permanent basis which would involve giving up her flat. I just don't know what would be the best decision for her anf if to look for another home. To start with she just didn't seem to be ready to be there in such high end dementia, however now in a short space of time she's heading that way already.
Any advice would be grateful. ?

 

[karaokePete]

Hello and welcome @Drewster3012.

I don't have an answer to your query but just wanted to assure you that our members have vast collective experience so you should get some advice over the next day or two.

 

[canary]

Hello @Drewster3012 and welcpme to DTP
Doing something as traumatic as breaking a hip can often advance the dementia. My mum was already in a care home when she fell and broke her hip and although her care home accepted her back, she declined massively in a short period of time.

Your mum might improve as she heals and settles, but she may not get back up to the level she was at before. Progression is unlikely to be due to the nursing home

 

[Jaded'n'faded]

Sorry to hear of your mum's decline...

I do agree though, that it's unlikely to be because she has moved to this care home. A fractured hip can cause a huge decline in any old person and particularly one with dementia. And the dementia itself rolls steadily on unfortunately.

Give it time - it sounds like the home are very used to caring for people like your mum.

 

[Drewster3012]

Hello @Drewster3012 and welcpme to DTP
Doing something as traumatic as breaking a hip can often advance the dementia. My mum was already in a care home when she fell and broke her hip and although her care home accepted her back, she declined massively in a short period of time.

Your mum might improve as she heals and settles, but she may not get back up to the level she was at before. Progression is unlikely to be due to the nursing home

Hi, thankyou for your reply. Its just so hard to try and figure out what is best and why the sudden decline in the past week. The staff at the home are lovely and lay no blame with that but just don't know if it's due to not being interactive with people anymore. She actually said herself at the start how can I feel better looking around at all of this. I find it really upsetting going in to see her looking at people who are in such advanced stages it's so sad.
I just want to be making the right decision for her, I just feel like I'm losing her what was left. She's gone from a sociable person who was fairly coherent into a childlike state.

 

[Drewster3012]

thankyou for your reply. Its just so hard to try and figure out what is best and why the sudden decline in the past week. The staff at the home are lovely and lay no blame with that but just don't know if it's due to not being interactive with people anymore. She actually said herself at the start how can I feel better looking around at all of this. I find it really upsetting going in to see her looking at people who are in such advanced stages it's so sad.
I just want to be making the right decision for her, I just feel like I'm losing her what was left. She's gone from a sociable person who was fairly coherent into a childlike state.

 

[canary]

There is a lot of misinformation out there about stimulating people with dementia . Yes, its good to stimulate people with dementia - although it is also easy to overstimulate them and in the later stages, just watching people come and go is enough - but there seems to be this misperception that any decline is due to lack of stimulation. It is not true.

Try bringing in things for her to look at - window light catchers, prisms to create rainbows, photos to stimulate memory (beware if she thinks they are real people spying on her and remove if this happens), maybe a fiddle muff (I knitted mum a fiddle rug to go over her knees and give her something to look/feel while she was in her chair) or a memory box.
But do not be surprised if she doesnt seem interested - they may be too much for her now.