What if a patient doesn’t cooperate in rehab?

I can empathize. My 97 year old mom is refusing to participate in pt and ot. She says she’s an old woman and they are trying to kill her. All she wants to do is lie bed and have someone bring her cappuccinos. She talks about getting up and walking but when they come for therapy she says she doesn’t feel like it. Good luck. I hope you can find something that will motivate your LO.

Will they even send him to rehab if he won't cooperate in the hospital?

I would be getting the answer to that 1st. May be the rehab doesn't even happen.

Can you call medi-cal and find out how they determine if care is provided/paid for?

Good luck, so sad at 64. Many good years ahead with hard work.

Worried:

He's got Multiple Myeloma, stage 0? It's a very manageable disease; does he know that? Has the oncologist who is treating him explained what is going on in a way that he can understand?

Has anyone suggested a psychiatric consult? Sounds like he's quite depressed.

OK, he gets a Psych eval and still refuses treatment. He has a right to die the way he wants.

I have a friend who had a lumpectomy before the holidays. A scan showed that there was no Cancer in her body. She is 77. She researched the side effects of radiation and the chemo pill u take for 5 yrs. She talked to the radiologist and the oncologist and chose not to go with either treatment. She just went to the surgeon, a woman, for a follow. She berated my friend for not doing the treatments saying that she would have taken the breast if she had known she wasn't proceeding with treatment. What! My friend was given choices and felt the side effects were not worth it.

I am so tired of hearing about that "one little cell". My sister went thru 8 months of agressive chemo even after her scan showed no cancer. She couldn't work. She went back to work in July. Started having pain in Sept. Died in October. She lived a year and a half after diagnosis. Would she have lived just as long without the treatments? Its all about the quality of life. How can ur natural ammune system fight when the white blood cells are distroyed too.

His lack of planning does NOT equate to him coming to live with you. YOU determine who lives with you.

The way this was explained to me is that there is a care plan. If the patient doesn’t do the therapy for whatever reason then he will be discharged as therapy is not the same as custodial care.
Having said that, it is sometimes considered therapy if the patient will just sit in a chair. If that’s all they can do.
Also, Medi-Cal May provide for custodial care in his circumstance. I don’t know.
I was told it is fraud for the rehab to bill for therapy they aren’t able to provide.
If your FIL is not incompetent, then the POA can’t force him into any situation FIL doesn’t agree with. Like he can’t force him to take the chemo.
FILs situation sounds very difficult. I’m sorry he is going through this and doesn’t appear to have hope.
WorriedinCa I know you are a frequent poster. So you know about “Being Mortal, Medicine and what matters in the end” by Atul Gawande. If you haven’t read it, please do. Even if you only go online and look at the five questions it might be helpful for your FIL and your husband.
The first one is along the lines of Do you know where you are and what your condition is?
It also helps navigate cancer treatments with doctors. Doctors are often not very comfortable letting a patient know how successful a treatment is etc.
Keep us up to date on how he is doing.
Hugs

I don't know about Medi-Cal, but with Medicare, a patient can be discharged if they aren't making enough progress. In my opinion, my mother was doing the best she could after fracturing her hip. She could walk, but not for long as the only way she was able to manage pain was with tylenol. All other pain meds sickened her. At the age of 88, they were ready to discharge her after only 18 days of rehab. Medicare policies can be very cruel. My advice is to question the discharge, if it comes to that, with Medicare and when they deny your request for your loved one to stay longer which they pretty much always do, file another appeal. Maybe in the case of your BIL, the hospital social worker can give you some advice as well as the social worker at rehab. It sounds like he is depressed and who wouldn't be? Do everything you can do to bolster his mood and make functioning easier. He needs easier ways to communicate and strategies to pass the time each day.

Worriedincallie; Hi I think if the patient refuses PT 5 xs then they cut them off I may be wrong....maybe 3

due to his cancer diagnosis I feel he may be suffering depression and should have been put on an antidepressant. Depression and anger which may manifest as refusing treatment are part of the grieving process of loss, which includes losing one's health. I suggest you talk to his doctor and suggest he may be depressed. If nothing is done and he continues to refuse he's headed straight to the nursing home. bottom line patients have the right to refuse, and believe me no therapist is going to force the issue on them. They will simply chart "patient refused" and move on to the next.

They'll try for a few times, then discharge