Nightly wandering has caused my father to be dismissed from his memory care facility. Does this seem normal?

Your father is in memory care which I think used to be called the long-term dementia care unit of a nursing home. If this is correct, then aren't they supposed to have 24 hour round-the-clock staff to prevent those residents from doing things like wandering into other people's rooms or taking off and leaving the facility? Is that not what "memory care" is supposed to be? If they're kicking your father out of such a facility and one that supposedly specializes in "memory care", then I'd report them to whatever state he's in. Clearly they're claiming to run a facility for people with dementia but are not equipped to provide and handle the care people with dementia need.

That's a terrible memory care facility then. Look for another better memory care facility, and let them know ahead of time that he wanders at night. Most memory care facilities actually have things in place to prevent such a thing from even happening in the first place. I find it appalling that such a place would be incapable of dealing with a normal issue that people get sent there for. Ridiculousness at its best. If you ask me, people nowadays are way too stuck up and scared of strangers. I'm sure your father meant no harm. It's like they forget that we're all human and that just because you don't know someone, doesn't make them a threat. The families that complained just aren't considerate enough to think of why someone would be sent to a memory care facility in the first place.

This is absurd. Makes me wonder if this place has any accreditation  to be an MC facility. You don't say if this place is private pay or not. The staff of an MC facility should be trained in handling wandering. The reason why many caregivers place their LO in an MC facility is because of their wandering, that's why it's a secured area. There would be no reason to secure the area if people didn't wander. I'm not sure who you would contact, maybe the long term care ombudsman or your State Dept of Aging can help.

Call your state ombudsmen office and see if they can look into it.

It's my understanding that once wandering behavior occurs, the person is moved to memory care where the doors are secure so they can't leave their area without accompaniment. Not sure about the wandering into the rooms of others. I would talk to admin and make sure the wandering is the real -- or only -- reason.

It could be that the wandering wasn't properly explained to the staff and maybe your poor Dad innocently swatted somebody who wasn't expecting it.

Unfortunately that kind of thing then goes down in an Incident Report Form and people start getting jumpy about risk - so instead of making sure that staff members know better than to confront or lay hands on the wandering resident, but engage with him in a reassuring way, it's much easier just to boot out the resident.

If you could repair relations with the facility, would you want to?

I would not take him home from Memory Care. I think they cannot put him out into the street. He may need medication at night to calm him; of course there is not easy fix it answer to any of this, as any such medication would put him in danger of falling. This is not an unusual nor unique symptom, and I would speak with the administrator. This cannot be the first time they have dealt with this and it sounds as though they are "cherry picking". Assure them that you will seek the advice of medical to find a medication that may work. I am wondering if we are missing any pieces in this, because, as I said this is a common symptoms for those with dementia.

It's not his failure but the failure of the MC and of society. Can the doctor review his medications? Bump up vitamins and supplements (gingko, B's, etc) - don't skimp -- and melatonin for sleep. It's too common to overmedicate a senior to control behavior. A diffuser with essential oils may be calming. If he is looking for the bathroom or some anchor, can you place familiar items in his room? How about music? Get an electronic device such as an Alexa to drop in and monitor him from home, at night your voice can float in and say hi. OR scheduled programmed conversation? Maybe he is looking for conversation and voices; is there a radio or tv? There is a different model for Alzheimers that I saw on Facebook - a scandinavian country -- where there is a village with tiny houses/units; the residents can wander all day / night long on the outside pathways. There's nothing like that in the US.

The facility in which my husband was for 8 days in July of 2019 for respite care had magnetic door locks on all the doors in the memory care unit so that if a patient came out of his/her room he couldn't access others.

Not sure if this may help. My father was in a similar situation. Initially he was in a board and care home with no wake staff at night. He was ok and during covid and with dementia didn't know what was going on. His dementia worsened and began getting up at night from sundowning.

He was evicted.

I found him another board and care home with wake staff that was able to redirect him back to bed 3 or 4 times a night and it worked well for him and didn't need to go to a special memory care or dementia facility. Maybe something like that would work for you?