My mother was in AL broke her hip, in rehab 2 months. I have been paying every month to hold her place and now they won't take her back, help!

Assisted Living is not set up to handle a 95 yr old with dementia and a mending broken hip.  She needs Long term care. 

I feel like the real injustice here is that they should have told you that from the get go and not taken your money while knowing they were not going to take her back.  What does her lease say?  Are you required to give two months notice anyway? All of this may be a moot point.

Disgusted: I did see that after I had posted and it was too late to remove it.

Your mother is 95 years old and has dementia. Now she can't walk by herself. She needs a much higher level of care. Whether you used your own money or hers to pay for her room, which sat empty for 2 months while she was in rehab, seems irrelevant to me. ALs are for-profit businesses, and their contracts are written so as to give them as much leeway as possible. Work with the social worker where she is now to get her placed in a facility that can meet her many needs. Her needs are only going to increase.

I would have issue with the AL taking the money for 2 months and THEN saying she can't come back. Do they have a MC section she can transition to? From your profile, it sounds like this might be a better fit. They were aware, one would think, of her needs before the broken hip, so they should have known long before two months went by. Most likely this will all come down to whatever is in the "contract", but taking your money and then saying oops, sorry she can't come back now is rather shady practice.

For those who say AL is not for those with mobility issues, perhaps some places are not set up to handle/manage many with these issues. The AL section of mom's facility has MANY people using canes, walkers, AND wheelchairs. It is non-profit and has IL/AL/MC. The criteria *should* be more than just mobility. In OP's case, based on the profile, mom has additional needs that likely cannot be met with the new mobility issue, but I still have a problem with a place that takes your money and then says no.

You should not be footing her bills. What if she has to go on Medicaid down the road?

Are you saying that the SNF where she is rehabbing is saying that she can't go back to her AL or are you saying the AL won't take her back?

If the SNF is saying she can't go back, have the nurse from your mom's AL come out to assess her. They know best what they can handle. It's been my experience that SNFs overestimate the amount of care a person needs.

If it's the AL that won't take your mom back, I'd have a beef with that if you gave them the opportunity to assess her while she was in the SNF and didn't give you any indication that they wouldn't take her back until after they collected rent for two months.

"Help with walking" can mean a lot of things. The expectations there should be spelled out regardless of where mom winds up living.

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She may not meet the criteria to stay in AL. Their regulations may state that she is only a candidate for NH care now.

First of all, YOU should NOT be paying her bills. No way - and that may cause harm down the road when you want to place her. She must pay her own care. Go to the Office on Aging in your county and your doctor and let them know she cannot come home - period. Someone must place her somewhere even if it is not where she was. She has to be put somewhere but not in your home at once. Get help - it can be done and must be done.

Your problem is the rehab and the rehab doctor who wrote this. You need to get this changed ASAP and speak with the doctor who filled in the forms. He doesn't know what her ALF is like and needs to be told she "can't go home" with this diagnosis written in stone. My brother had a "needs help with medications" which would have bumped him up 200.00 a month. Guess what, he takes one aspirin a day only. And was checked to be oriented and able to take walks on his own and leave facility on his own. We spoke with the doctor who quickly changed that check mark. Go NOW to the Rehab and speak with the doctor. If she cannot thrive in her ALF it will soon be apparent. Be clear. This is the Rehab doctor problem, not your Assisted Living. Call now at once and say you need to see/speak to him at once because this is virtually a massive life change for your Mom otherwise, one that could "just kill her". This is time for drama. I am overall not a fan of drama, as many will know, but there are times for it and this is one. Update us if you will.

Check the contract that you signed with the AL. If you have paid the money to hold the room, then I would go to the BBB and see if they can offer help to you unless the contract states other terms besides paying to hold the room for her.

This happened to my dad too. He became wheelchair bound and needed constant help with transfers. AL was not set up for that. So off he went to LTC

If you feel she's back to her level of functioning before the hip fracture I would call the ALF and request that they come to the SNF and evaluate her. ALF's do evaluations on potential residents. I have had therapist in SNF's recommend skilled care for clients and when the ALF evaluated them they were able to return to the ALF.

I work in Missouri, here there are two levels of ALF, and Assisted Living I and an Assisted Living II. In an Assisted Living II the resident does not have to be able to make a pathway to safety and can age in place, up to having Hospice Services in the ALF. I would check the laws of your state and see if they have different levels of ALF's. Either way, I would definitely request the ALF to evaluate your loved one.

If your mother needs help with walking, she probably does need more care than is offered by AL. Assisted Living facilities do not provide that much in home help. The resident has to hire his or her own home care aide.

Am I misreading something? She’s in rehab, which is where you go rehab, not the AL. Yes, her level of care needs have changed, AL is no longer the place for her. She needs more Hands on help and MC might work but sounds more like nursing home.
Im terribly sorry You’re facing this, but the sooner you make the mind shift the sooner the expenses stop also. Get AL rent on notice and find a room!

In California I believe they have to you back because that is your home. They can evict you but must give you 30 days notice and then you can appeal. They tried to do that to my Dad but I won based on California law.
check out the rules that you signed there should be a page on eviction and the rules and then check with your Ombudsman. Good luck

From the description in your profile it sounds like mom needs more than AL.
Now with the hip I would think she is less agile than previously and will need even more help.
Does the AL facility have a Memory Care unit that she can transfer to? That might be the best option. She will get more care since there generally is a better resident/staff ratio.

They have their own Rules, Now you Need to Do something about Getting Her Her own Care or Putting her Somewhere...

If the rehab is in a regular nursing home, they likely say this hoping that the patient will be placed there. I was told she would need 24/7 care just days before my mom's release. In my case I scrambled to get a room ready in my home as she was in her own home before this. It could be that the rehab you have is reporting this to the AL where your mom lives hoping to influence a move to a NH. As you can tell I don't trust NH's because of all the experiences I had with my mom's rehabs during the last 2 yrs of her life. Everyone is different but if she just needs help walking I don't see what the AL's problem is.

Broken hips are no joke in the elderly. It's a bummer that you've paid the rent for 2 months, only to get this bad news. That hurts!

So, you said AL "just" needs to help with walking? If she can not walk safely on her own, this sounds like a huge problem. Are you saying she was immobile, just like this, before she broke her hip? If so, had they talked to you about the high demand on staff this was creating?

Was rehab unsuccessful? It would seem like in 2 months she would be in a pretty good position physically. I know my mom was in rehab for 1 week and she had to tow the line and do the work. Oh wait, was she in a rehab facility or in a NH for rehab (much different, IMHO)?

Anyhow, her needs really sound like they are too high for AL. My daughter worked in one for a few years and they were really not able to handle patients like this because that's not what AL is for. My aunt was living there and when she started sundowning and staff had to spend hours with her every night, they said she needed to moved - she is now in MC where she gets the care she needs.

Good luck

As just explained different AL facilities have different criteria. For example: my mother was in a facility which was a for profit one in NY. They did not accept patients in wheelchairs. We moved all of us to SC. She is in a facility here. It is a not for profit one. In the general AL section of the facility there are 2 floors for residents. My mother is on the 2nd floor. The first floor has residents who require more care with some being in wheelchairs. Separately from this is another section for MC and another one for residents who need a NH environment. These sections don't interact although the 2 floors of the AL facility do.

I am sorry you have this new dilemma but I do think it would be best for her to be where they feel they can provide needed care.

Each Assisted Living Facility has their own criteria for residents, ie: what ADLs they will and will not assist with. If your mother has been deemed to require 24 hr care in any form, most ALs will not accept her back. I faced the same situation with my mother and her ALF after she'd been in rehab this past May; they would not accept her back in regular Assisted Living because she became wheelchair bound AND her dementia had worsened. The combination was too much for them to handle with the 20:1 ratio of resident to care giver going on there. So, they said they would take her in their Memory Care wing instead, where the caregiver ratio was MUCH higher and she'd receive a lot more attention in general, which is what she needed, in reality. I hope your AL is going to give you a refund of the rent you paid!

Will the SNF your mom is in now accept her as a resident? Will they help you apply for Medicaid if you have the need to do that? If not, you'll have to look around for other ALFs that will accept your mom in the condition she's currently in. Again, they all have different criteria. The SNF should have a social worker who can help you get her placed. You can also enlist the help of a elder care broker who can look around FOR you and see if there's a facility that will take her. Look around online for such a broker in your area. We have a place here called Morningstar Senior Living which DOES accept seniors with more needs than usual, but their rates are almost as high as SNFs. If there is a Morningstar in your area, it may be worth checking out.

Best of luck! I know how difficult all of this is!!