It's complicated! Mom moved from out of state to an ILF to be closer to me. She fell in January, did not break any bones, and went to the hospital for abrasions. Her incessant talk about dying prompted the doctor to call the hospital psychiatrist, who diagnosed her with severe depression, which was not a surprise to me. She went to a SNF, then into LTC in the same nursing home. She's oriented to person, place and time, has a great vocabulary, converses very well. No Alzheimer's, but definitely some dementia. Mom's short-term memory is sporadic, but sometimes great, recalling things from a couple of days ago. She's had delusions for a while, and went into a psychotic episode at the nursing home. She tested negative for a UTI, and after 3rd time, went to a psychiatric hospital for a week. Now she's in a locked memory care unit in a nursing home run by the same company. They tried a 3 day trial in the regular population side, but she got very grouchy and negative. So she's back with residents who are non-verbal, severely cognitively impaired, and not able to interact with her. The staff is great, and I feel she's getting good care. Of course, she's very unhappy there, but she's been unhappy everywhere! It's more for me that I want her someplace with peers. She's very verbal, and loves to talk about old movies and music. AL came to evaluate her, but she can't transfer and will always need assistance getting up from bed to wheelchair etc., which apparently is required for AL. I've been to all the local facilities at one time or another, and just don't know if I should keep pursuing a more appropriate place, or is she just caught in the middle of delusions and moderate dementia in memory care.
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If your mom is in memory care, do they interact with the other residents? Could an aide bring her to activities where the regular AL residents do crafts etc so she could have someone to talk to - or maybe seat her at a table with them for meals?
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Was the psychiatric hospital able to come up with a drug or combination of drugs that helped calm Mom? Has she had psychotic episodes since leaving the hospital? If she has, then maybe she is where she needs to be, for those times when she has episodes.
But if she is on a drug regime that reduces her psychotic behavior, then perhaps she would do better where there are other residents functioning at her social level.
It is complicated, isn't it?