Facility Fears Part 2: Being Prepared.

This is part 2 of my previous blog. At some point this summer, a news story circulated on Facebook and also Yahoo, and probably other sites, about a family whose elderly mother had died because of suspected nursing home neglect.

Her son was the predominant speaker, and he described his mother in glowing terms. She had lived with them for years, apparently, and they had been proud to care for her. It didn’t sound like she had dementia, just the expected health problems for someone her age. As often happens, there was an accident, she was taken to the hospital, and the family had to quickly find a nursing home/rehab facility for her. Within a few weeks, as I recall, this otherwise healthy elderly woman was dead – from suspected neglect.

Of course, this caught my attention, and I felt terrible for the family. This is something all of us who have loved ones in facilities hate to hear, and fear will happen to our care receivers. What could possibly be worse? But something the gentleman said caught my attention in particular, and reminded me about an issue I talk about often – something I tell every single caregiver, and potential caregiver, I talk to. It’s about preparation.

The gentleman said that his mother’s accident happened suddenly, and that they only had 24 hours to find a nursing home for her. While I sympathize with their plight, I also think they could have planned ahead. Apparently, their mother lived with them for several years, as she aged and her health declined. Knowing that she was aging, couldn’t they have started investigating facilities and resources in their area as a proactive response to a definite possibility of accident of injury?

When I started caring for Dad, I knew absolutely nothing. Suddenly, we were faced with the need to find either in-home care for Dad or a facility – immediately! Where to begin? Fortunately, we had a care manager helping us and she found an in-home care agency, but again, we were very fortunate in that choice. If we’d found them on our own, they could have turned out to be not such a good agency, and we wouldn’t have known that until it was too late.

I definitely didn’t want to go through that again. Wanting to be proactive as Dad’s health declined, I started looking for a facility well before he had to go into one. That way I was able to really do my research and find the right place, without feeling rushed.

When I speak to people now who talk about their loved one still being in denial, I tell them to just start doing research on their own! Find a lawyer now, find a facility, locate resources – that way you’ll have them when the worst happens, as it did for me, and for this family. I am so sorry it happened to them, but perhaps some good can come out of it, if it helps convince a family that they need to start planning ahead for their loved one, before the worst happens.