Need advice on "redirection"

[Alicenutter]

Hello all. It's been a long time since I came on here. My husband Joseph has been in a nursing home (Skilled Nursing Facility here in the USA) for a year, and on the whole they manage his occasionally very challenging behaviours competently, calmly and with genuine affection.

Recently, the manager of Joseph’s unit has decided, with my agreement, to let Joseph wander at will throughout the unit. Previously he was confined to his recliner and walked with care assistants at regular intervals. The problem is that Joseph has, as could be expected, a very broad definition of at will, and is often to be found in residents’ room, tidying their affairs and on one occasion, going to sleep in their bed. The staff are flexible, and don’t mind him doing this, but there are some residents who cannot deal with the intrusion, which is totally understandable. So Joseph has to be “redirected”.

Do any of you have any proven techniques for this? The man does not like to be told what to do, and if he is focussed on folding a towel in someone’s room, he is very focussed. It’s extremely hard to get his attention, let alone persuade him gently to move on out. We have tried “Oh, look what’s going on over there!”, and “Let’s go and get a (mythical) coffee” and “What about over there?” And sometimes that works, but less and less frequently as I don’t think he understands much at all of the words he is hearing. I have asked the staff a) to make a list of occasions when he has to be redirected so we can look at it together and work out when this is an absolute necessity and when it isn’t and b) to record who, what, how and when has worked. But they asked me if I had any ideas and I thought of you good people....

 

[Kevinl]

You won't stop a wanderer, my wife was one and the number of times I found her in someone else's room or as you say in their bed is too many to count. Fortunately as she's become less it's become less of a problem.
It still happens everyday that as I walk round I see resident's in other people's rooms and without constant supervision the staff can do little about it.
It is an issue where a resident still has capacity to know someone is in "their space" but at present they're no one in the home with capacity to recognise that so it's only the visitors some of whom have a problem with it happening.
I've never heard anyone offer a solution in either place my wife's been in in the past 2.5 years.
K

 

[Linbrusco]

My Mum is in a care home now 2 yrs. She is now a wanderer when in the beginning she was one of the ones that took exception to others going into her room.

Mums care home try as much as possible to keep the residents engaged in the lounge with activities, constant drinks & meals.
The residents doors are shut, when they are, because the wanderers, will just go into any room that is open.
The carers do checks every 15 mns on the wanderers, that arent in the lounge, but they seem to do a good job of distracting but thats just from what I see.

I did read once and this was from a care facility in the States where to prevent wanderers into other rooms they place a type of retractable red banner/barrier across the door way so that it prevents them from just walking in, especially if the resident is in their room but wants theit door open.
There may be the odd one who may still have the mental ability to think to crawl under it, but supposedly its quite effective.

 

[Alicenutter]

Thank you. Good tips. I’m going to ask if some doors, at least, can be closed. One resident has a barrier saying “Stop”, like a road sign. If Joseph detaches it, which he does, occasionally, it lets off a piercing alarm. Which he doesn’t care about one whit....The staff there try to engage Joseph in activities but what he really likes is one-to-one attention.

 

[love.dad.but..]

Unfortunately ny determined wandering dad was one who went into other residents' rooms. Often if he was tired after lots of walking I can imagine he thought there is a bed or chair I am tired and in he went. He did pick up items which I relocated to the carers each visit. It is not a deliberate invading privacy and personal space behaviour ...dad would never have done that pre dementia such a private and respectful chap but dementia changes everything. Other than staff trying to keep an eye on known room wanderers and distracting and redirecting before they enter the room...once in no amount of explaining is going to work...sometimes I was able to use an item to say we need to take it somewhere else etc and dad would go with me then I would return it but often his determination was too strong as others have posted