What is the staffing ratio at the memory care facility where your LO is residing?

agingmom123: Perhaps no facility is perfection.

1 to 8 during the day 1 to 10 at night I think.

I believe the question isn't to be directed to others about ratios where they live or have a loved one; the issue and need is to address the situation with the executive director and management of the facility.

* Often, facilities have difficulties hiring enough care providers. (I believe it is happening all over the country - this shortage of staffing)
* They may not be trained well nor supervised well
* Ask about supervision/follow-up training to ensure (proper) care is given.
* Hire your own caregiver as you can (1-2 hours several times a week) or get volunteers to assist your loved one.
* Keep a journal of care / needs: date, time, who, when, what.
* Take photos as you can

* As needed, report the facility to the licensing board. (I did this).
- First, try to work with an Ombudsman to 'work out the deficient care'

Gena / Touch Matters


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FIrst, look up your state regulations (an elder care attorney or geriatric case manager can help with this info), to see if there is anything specific. THere may or may not be any prescribed regulations. Its possible the regulations are the same for Memory Care as Assisted Living.

THen, if they are meeting regulations, see if you think the number of caregivers is adequate to meet the needs, and if they are doing a reasonable job.
If not, its easy for us to say "move to a better Memory Care place". The hard part of that is that, sometimes the better staffed places with better reputations might have long wait lists. Then you need to decide whether to get on that waitlist and wait.
for now, see what you can do with speaking with the facility staff. Will they let you get your own personal aide for part of the day to provide some extra care if needed?

You wrote in another post, "Make demands known and escalate quickly." I have learned to live by this mantra taking care of my LO." If you don't like the facility your LO is residing in, move them out. Making constant demands and escalating them quickly is not the way to make a point.

In a private pay Memory Care residence, caregivers never shower residents first thing in the morning during busy times but put them on a schedule instead. Care conferences should be scheduled quarterly to discuss what's happening with the LO and any changes or concerns are brought up for discussion. In between conferences, I'd contact either the executive director or the head nurse to bring up questions or issues in a calm manner. They were always resolved quickly, and if not, I'd send another email or make a call. If the MC my mother lived at had nothing but issues forcing me to constantly feel upset and escalate that upset, I'd have moved her to one of the other myriad facilities available.

The caregivers at moms MC genuinely loved her and cared for her beautifully. Was everything perfect? Of course not, nothing ever is. But the pros of this MC outweighed the cons, is what it boiled down to. If your LOs facility's cons outweigh it's pros, consider looking for a better run MC that is NOT corporate owned, preferably. Mom's was privately owned and MUCH easier to deal with because there was no corporate red tape to cut thru. The ED made decisions on the spot, billing was done in the building, and all issues were resolved with no beurocracy to wade thru.

My LO pays over $13K a month and they don't even toilet her after each meal. Only when they first wake her up, maybe once in the afternoon and change her pull up when putting to bed. Of course, the facility lies and tells me..." no no no, we always toilet her before and after every meal". No facility does that. They don't even know how to lie. If anyone wants to know the name of this facility, I am happy to share.

The facility looks very pretty and they do a 'decent' job of keeping the facility clean but that's all they care about and that's where it ends.

8:2
I pay dearly for that ratio.