hi everyone
my mum has been in a care home for 5 weeks now. she remains unsettled and unhappy. says she wants to leave, hates it, wants to die, wants to know what she has done to deserve this....
we have had conflicting advice regarding visiting, and have visited alot and even taken her out a few times. she was seen the week before christmas by a psycho-geri doctor who suggested we do not take her out at all and visit much less, to enable her to settle. we are happy to do this if it will work.
only problem is, with every encounter i have with the home, i am losing all confidence in their ability to look after my mum. i know they will never be able to give her the attention she got from her family, but they seem unable to take into account her AD.
it is apparantly a good home, had been recommended by two people we know and is certainly not cheap - £750 pw. however, we have become aware that mum has spent the whole day without her glasses on - on at least 3 occaisions - and then they phone us because she is getting aggressive and uncooperative! i visited yesterday and she had no glasses on (at 2pm), i spoke to the manager last week about it, a senior carer yesterday and phoned this morning at 9.30am to check if she had them on and....yes you guessed, she didn't!!
how can they expect anyone to settle when they can't see anything, let alone someone with AD?
not only the glasses issue, but also, the staff do not seem to 'engage' with the residents. it is a fairly large home, 55 beds, and a fair number of staff, but when the carers are in the lounge they seem to sit around chatting to themselves and make no effort to chat to the residents. there is plently of entertainment, something usually every afternoon plus they usually have cards or games for an hour a day after lunch. but other than this there seems to be no involvement between the staff and residents unless there is an obvious care need.
i have rambled on and probably not made my point even, but what i'm wondering is would it be the worst thing possible to move my mum if we thought we had found a better home, one more geared up to caring for sufferers of AD?
and any tips on how to find such a place? i'm thinking smaller (5 -15 beds) and more home like? any advice gratefully received!
my mum has been in a care home for 5 weeks now. she remains unsettled and unhappy. says she wants to leave, hates it, wants to die, wants to know what she has done to deserve this....
we have had conflicting advice regarding visiting, and have visited alot and even taken her out a few times. she was seen the week before christmas by a psycho-geri doctor who suggested we do not take her out at all and visit much less, to enable her to settle. we are happy to do this if it will work.
only problem is, with every encounter i have with the home, i am losing all confidence in their ability to look after my mum. i know they will never be able to give her the attention she got from her family, but they seem unable to take into account her AD.
it is apparantly a good home, had been recommended by two people we know and is certainly not cheap - £750 pw. however, we have become aware that mum has spent the whole day without her glasses on - on at least 3 occaisions - and then they phone us because she is getting aggressive and uncooperative! i visited yesterday and she had no glasses on (at 2pm), i spoke to the manager last week about it, a senior carer yesterday and phoned this morning at 9.30am to check if she had them on and....yes you guessed, she didn't!!
how can they expect anyone to settle when they can't see anything, let alone someone with AD?
not only the glasses issue, but also, the staff do not seem to 'engage' with the residents. it is a fairly large home, 55 beds, and a fair number of staff, but when the carers are in the lounge they seem to sit around chatting to themselves and make no effort to chat to the residents. there is plently of entertainment, something usually every afternoon plus they usually have cards or games for an hour a day after lunch. but other than this there seems to be no involvement between the staff and residents unless there is an obvious care need.
i have rambled on and probably not made my point even, but what i'm wondering is would it be the worst thing possible to move my mum if we thought we had found a better home, one more geared up to caring for sufferers of AD?
and any tips on how to find such a place? i'm thinking smaller (5 -15 beds) and more home like? any advice gratefully received!