Dementia patients and sr homes . .

[gardenmom5]

We have a new senior living home up the street.  Big huge house they finally finished. 

I came home to my neighbor asking if I knew this frail little old lady who had been trying to get into her husband's shop.  She was very determined.  I also tried talking to her, she had little ability to speak.  She could nod . . . 
Neighbor husband checked our closest neighbors and called 911.  Just as we were going to try the brand new sr home up the street, the aid unit showed up to they checked her out.  A police car showed up - then the owner/operator of the senior home showed up - they had been driving looking for her.
while we are on a dead end street - there are multiple ways to get off of it and onto busy streets.  I was glad that with police and fire involved, her family will know about this and they will also get the message she needs to be in a locked unit.
It was clear to me - she has dementia and shouldn't have been in a senior home.  She needs a locked unit.  I know most people don't want to pay for that, as it is expensive.

My neighbor was upset because of how easily (and how close to) she could have wandered to a busy street and she moves very slowly.

[bolt.]

It seems like you are used to some fairly specific vocabulary.

In my experience, local to me, a "seniors home" can mean almost anything -- from fully capable people living in building limited to 65+ -- to full time nursing for completely incapacitated folks.

Many "seniors homes" offer a variety of levels and types of care, including various forms of locked floors/wings etc. for those with dementia. So, I don't really know what your local seniors home offers. They might or might not offer some types of locked memory care for folks who need it. However, if they do, there was clearly a failure of whatever systems they have in place. (Which does happen from time to time even in the best facilities. And it sounds like these operators are just getting started so a failure or two, resulting in elopement, might be expected.)

Anyhow, regardless of the institutions and their definitions -- this one lady matters, and she was in danger. Hopefully both the family and the facility will either step up their game or find her a better placement.

[gardenmom5]

34 minutes ago, bolt. said:

It seems like you are used to some fairly specific vocabulary.

In my experience, local to me, a "seniors home" can mean almost anything -- from fully capable people living in building limited to 65+ -- to full time nursing for completely incapacitated folks.

Many "seniors homes" offer a variety of levels and types of care, including various forms of locked floors/wings etc. for those with dementia. So, I don't really know what your local seniors home offers. They might or might not offer some types of locked memory care for folks who need it. However, if they do, there was clearly a failure of whatever systems they have in place. (Which does happen from time to time even in the best facilities. And it sounds like these operators are just getting started so a failure or two, resulting in elopement, might be expected.)

Anyhow, regardless of the institutions and their definitions -- this one lady matters, and she was in danger. Hopefully both the family and the facility will either step up their game or find her a better placement.

This is a house *a senior group home*, in a neighborhood of homes - not a retirement facility (which allows residents their own apartment, are very limited in services they offer (usually meals and general cleaning, activities, maybe some transportation, no medical) and residents must be able to take basic care of themselves. Those who become unable to self-care/need higher level of care while there are asked to leave. they'll give referrals to appropriate facilities. My mother was in one for a year until she needed more care).  It's not a skilled nursing facility (aka: nursing home that has medical requirements for staff and offerings).  It is not a large facility that offers multiple levels of (and able to escalate) care over multiple wings up to and including skilled-nursing and a locked unit.  I'm familiar with the specific language of what specific types of facilities offer in my locality. I went through it with my mother and toured a number of them across a spectrum of levels of care. 

It's "A House", so seniors (or those on hospice) who can no longer do basic self-care can receive care in a more "intimate" setting than a larger facility.  Usually with more caregivers per patient. This particular one, has capacity for - at most - six to eight residents.  
, 
Unless this facility has the ability to lockdown so patients can't elope, it is not appropriate for a dementia patient who wanders.  Supposedly the care giver had gone to the bathroom and shortly afterwards noticed the patient missing at lunch.  At the snail's pace she moved, it would have taken her at least 20+ minutes to get from the group home to where she was found. 

 It is possible to install double deadbolts (I had to do that with dudeling, the key was on a string and kept on top of the millwork for the door.  Out of his reach.  It was a pain to unlock the deadbolt to open the door, and I didn't miss it when I could take it off.).  Much as I love my auto-lock deadbolts, they're only one way.  Then it becomes a question of - keeping patients in, while not keeping out people who legitimately need to get in.
 

[City Mouse]

From my personal experience, it usually takes 2 episodes of “escaping” before the facility can require that the resident move to a higher level of care. I would guess that if she gets out again like this she will be required to move. 

Yes, it can b3 dangerous. My MIL was found two blocks away from her assisted living facility scooting in her wheelchair trying to “go to church”. Luckily, the AL was in an area of town that had streets but wasn’t otherwise developed. The only neighbors at that time were a city fire station, and the local firefighters took care of her and brought her back to her facility.

Edited April 18 by City Mouse

[Carol in Cal.]

Here in CA those are called Board and Care homes, and usually they don’t accept serious dementia cases unless they are double staffed.  Even then the placement does not last very long.

[gardenmom5]

I did get the owner's? phone number in case anything like this happens again.
though we may all still call 911 more from the standpoint of making sure the family realize there is a serious issue for their loved one.

 

[Brittany1116]

I wonder if she is possibly there while waiting for space at an appropriate facility. 

[SKL]

My thought would be that she got disoriented due to the move.  This might be a temporary problem.

It might not be senility.  It could also be autism or other disorder.  My cousin who has severe autism used to "run away" after being moved from one facility to another, because he felt like he was in the wrong place and needed to go back where he belonged.

[TechWife]

I think it's weird the people from the home were driving around looking for her. I would think they'd have a elopement plan that would be more effective than that. But, maybe not.

I recommend getting the police involved every single time. Then, find out what type of license the home has and which government agency has oversight. This will depend on the state and how the home is classified from a licensing perspective. Report any incidents to the police, then also report them to the licensing agency and the ombudsman for the home, if there is one (that will depend again on how the home is classified). This way you can get multiple eyes on the problem. Also, don't hesitate to ask the police if they will file a report with the overseeing government agency and clarify which agency that is. They probably already have that information on file, or are able to easily access it.

It could be a "one off" for the group home or the particular person, but even a "one off" is a serious problem when safety is concerned.

Thank you for looking out for your neighbors like this!

And just an FYI for everyone: The correct terminology is eloping, not escaping or running away.

 

 

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, SKL said:

My thought would be that she got disoriented due to the move.  This might be a temporary problem.

It might not be senility.  It could also be autism or other disorder.  My cousin who has severe autism used to "run away" after being moved from one facility to another, because he felt like he was in the wrong place and needed to go back where he belonged.

She was pretty incapable of speech and really couldn't give coherent or helpful answers.  My mother made more vocal sounds WHILE having a stroke. I have three kids formally diagnosed with ASD, and I've known more including women.  She didn't strike me as being on the spectrum.   wandering away because things are new and making her confused would make sense.  She does have obvious physical decline.

maybe it would be repeated, hopefully not.  I have their phone number.  We're close to woods, we're close to very steep slopes that a super fit adult would struggle with even if they have rope, we're close to busy roads - if she'd gone the other direction, it wouldn't have taken her more than five minutes at her pace to get to what is generally a pretty busy road.  we currently have a resident bobcat.
They were driving up and down the street - and onto what a driveways for multiple houses before getting to ours.  They got there just after the aid unit. don't remember if they were there before or after the first police car arrived.
 

[Carrie12345]

It’s scary, but there’s always a first time for everything in everyone, and we aren’t always aware a risk is present.  
In the given context, my grandmother’s first elopement attempt was when she got her hip replacement. That prevented her from any real chance of success, but no one would have thought she’d be at any risk of trying at that early point in her cognitive decline. But so much was going on at once (strange place being a big one) that it caused surprising reactions.

The handling is questionable, but it isn’t uncommon to reserve “high alert” status until something happens to warrant it. Not just officially, but as a mental load. Like, I didn’t worry about my toddler taking off out of a rarely used, always locked door until she did. She had never even messed with it before! 

[SKL]

8 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

She was pretty incapable of speech and really couldn't give coherent or helpful answers.  My mother made more vocal sounds WHILE having a stroke. I have three kids formally diagnosed with ASD, and I've known more including women.  She didn't strike me as being on the spectrum.   wandering away because things are new and making her confused would make sense.  She does have obvious physical decline.

Well autism diagnoses include many people who cannot form a coherent sentence unless medicated.  Some are completely non-verbal.  My cousin could only repeat certain words over and over, even in childhood.  With medication, he is able to talk like a kindergarten child, but he still gets disoriented and has no idea where he is when not "at home."  He has been institutionalized since elementary school.

Maybe now that the "autism spectrum" is so broad, people don't realize how disabled a person at the more extreme end of the spectrum is.

Edited April 18 by SKL

[gardenmom5]

I don't know why some people - who didn't actually meet her! - have become stuck on "oh, she's non-verbal autistic".

She's very elderly with obvious physical decline and mental confusion.  She had a baby doll with her. (often given to dementia patients to calm them).  she was trying to speak but was unable to speak - the impression was the inability to speak was something that happened later in life.  It's far more likely a TBI blocking speech pathways, than 'non-verbal autism'.  There are multiple types of dementia - TIAs can cause dementia, not every case of dementia is Alzheimer's or Lewy-body dementia.  (speaking of - there was something in her eyes that reminded me of a woman I knew (I knew her for 40 years) who had lewy-body when I saw her in late stage.)



 
 

[SKL]

1 hour ago, gardenmom5 said:

I don't know why some people - who didn't actually meet her! - have become stuck on "oh, she's non-verbal autistic".

She's very elderly with obvious physical decline and mental confusion.  She had a baby doll with her. (often given to dementia patients to calm them).  she was trying to speak but was unable to speak - the impression was the inability to speak was something that happened later in life.  It's far more likely a TBI blocking speech pathways, than 'non-verbal autism'.  There are multiple types of dementia - TIAs can cause dementia, not every case of dementia is Alzheimer's or Lewy-body dementia.  (speaking of - there was something in her eyes that reminded me of a woman I knew (I knew her for 40 years) who had lewy-body when I saw her in late stage.)

Yeah, nobody said it wasn't dementia, I just said autism was another possibility, which could explain why she decided to walk away shortly after a move to a new facility, and why it might be a temporary problem rather than her needing to be in permanent lockup as suggessted by another poster.  You felt it necessary to tell me you know more about autism than I do and autistic people can talk (based on the ASD people you know).  I would not have posted again if you didn't feel the need to respond that way.  And now I'm back because you felt the need to complain about my factual posts.

Bye now.

[gardenmom5]

1 hour ago, SKL said:

Yeah, nobody said it wasn't dementia, I just said autism was another possibility, which could explain why she decided to walk away shortly after a move to a new facility, and why it might be a temporary problem rather than her needing to be in permanent lockup as suggessted by another poster.  You felt it necessary to tell me you know more about autism than I do and autistic people can talk (based on the ASD people you know).  I would not have posted again if you didn't feel the need to respond that way.  And now I'm back because you felt the need to complain about my factual posts.

Bye now.

there are many age-related degenerative brain conditions that can cause people to "try to get back to their previous location".