I am going to find out more, but the aides are being shuffled around in the home. Mom is borderline hysteric. I did ask a few questions, stated mom liked the one aide she had, but (as I expected), nothing is going to change. I told mom before I asked I doubted nothing would change. Oh well, I asked. I just don't know if this is a matter that needs to be pursued or just let it be. I need to find out if help shuffles are the norm: anyone else out there see this? As such, I don't think this is the hill I want to die on. Matter of fact, I refuse to die on it.
Not that I think this will happen to you but my Mom died very shortly after being moved. I'd phone her and she would be crying. I had built the new place up in her mind to make the move easier on her but she never liked it.
Unfortunately she needs maximum assistance including a lift so it must be hard on everyone
This is happening at my dad's nursing home as well, and I don't know why. I guess to start we need to ask some of the Aides who are willing to talk. Nursing homes have a very high turnover. They are very short on staff new aides every single week. Nursing is very hard work, there should always be two aides to one patients but that will never happen. I am interesting in getting the Nursing Homes laws re-designed but it takes a village to help make it happen.
USA should be ashamed!
thanks all
She recently got her psych tech license and just changed her full time job for better pay but with rotating hours - she had still been doing Saturday afternoons for us but won't be able to anymore
Not only did she handle my mom well but she alerted me to several problems at the facility that I would have not known about otherwise - a couple of weeks ago she even stayed late on her own time so she and mom could finish a puzzle -
By reframing her behavior as agitation, you get to see if as a symptom, perhaps of longstanding mental illness and/or dementia, not something she's working herself into. For a long time, my brother characterized my mother's anxiety as something "she's bringing on herself". It was not. It was a symptom of cognitive decline.
as an aside, If I choose to label my moms reaction as 'borderline hysterical', I am using it as a result of 60 years plus of observation of her behavior. This is nothing new, this 'hysteria' has different forms and manifested in different ways over the years. I watched her work herself into a hysterical paranoid fit back in 1977, I had to go somewhere for a few hours, and when i got back she was walking around yelling and waving, even had the boyfriend down involved in it. (I know what set if off btw, if anyone wants to know). I also could hear it in her voice yesterday when I went to see her. She has calmed down in the intervening years, but bits and pieces of the old behavior does emerge on occasion, I simply will not tolerate it, I just leave the room when she starts.
I repeat, the upshot is that there is little to nothing I can do about the re-assignment of this aide, and from what I understand, mom will be moved to another room entirely once the medicaid paperwork finishes (if ever). This may well precipitate another episode. I just hope she doesn't end up wanting to come home. I don't think it would work out. My fear is she is going to harp at this aide transfer, and when she does not get her way, is going to escalate. I am going to have another talk with the director of nursing at the home (not trying to change her mind), but only when I catch her at a calm moment and sitting in her office. It is just going to take a little time. I will also bring up the subject of the anti anxiety medication. Also, she refused a psychological interview way back at the beginning which does not surprise me either. She is super afraid of being 'found out'. oh well, I have to leave for the home in a few minutes so chapter 2 may well be on the way.
Again, thanks for your help.
As for staff at the facility I've noticed some turnover in the 8 months she's been there - of course the best move on the fastest 😕
Mom was in a nursing home for a little over 2 years. We could always tell when there was a significant change in staff -- her teeth wouldn't be in, or she wouldn't have a sweater, or she was wearing someone else's glasses. Then the new people would get used to each resident and things would be stable for a while. It happens. Comfort and reassure your loved one through the changes.
No amount of explaining or reassuring mom helped. Only meds.