Is Your Loved One in the Correct Facility?

One of the most important things to consider when facing the challenging decision to place a loved one in a facility is, what type of facility does my loved one need?

What level of care does my loved one need?

There are independent living facilities, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and a variety of other facilities with a variety of different names including memory care units, residential facilities, and other names created by the owners and the operators of these facilities.

Which one of these facilities is the right facility for my mom, my dad, my grandfather, etc.

The key is: what level of care does your loved one need? What are their abilities? What are their capabilities?

Here at The Dickson Firm, we receive a lot of telephone calls from family members whose loved one has suffered a fall. Some of these falls occur at independent living facilities. Some of these falls occur at assisted living facilities. Some of these falls occur at nursing homes.

I recently spoke with a woman whose father had fallen at an assisted living facility. If your loved one is in an assisted living facility, it is expected that they are able to walk on their own. It is expected that they do not need 24‑hour supervision.

Nursing homes are required to provide their residents with adequate supervision to prevent accidents. Nursing homes are required to provide their residents with a safe environment. And while nursing homes do not provide their residents with 24‑hour a day one‑on‑one care, they are required to provide their residents with adequate supervision to prevent accidents. They are required to provide their residents with that level of supervision that is needed to keep them safe.

How do they do that? Sometimes they do provide one‑on‑one care. Throughout the day, every resident in a nursing home receives one‑on‑one care. Many residents need help getting up in the morning. They need help getting up out of bed. They need help getting from the bed to the wheelchair. They need help going to the bathroom. They need help brushing their hair, brushing their teeth, washing their face, taking a shower, having a bed bath. They need help getting cleaned up after a bowel movement. They need help with eating. They need help with activities. They need help getting from their room to the dining room for breakfast. They need therapy. So, throughout the day at a nursing home, residents receive lots of one‑on‑one care from lots of different people at the nursing home including nurses, aides, and therapists.

There are also times when the residents are not receiving one‑on‑one care. However, if a nursing home resident is at risk for falls—meaning they are able to get up on their own but they're not able to walk around safely on their own, then they need supervision.

The nursing homes can accomplish this with alarms that go off if the resident tries to get up and alerts the staff to the fact that they're getting up. They can address this by trying to anticipate the resident's needs. If Mrs. Jones gets up every night at 3:00 a.m. because she has to use the bathroom, then the nursing home should put her on a toileting program so that they take her to the bathroom every night at 2:30 a.m. and therefore anticipate her needs.

Conversely, it is presumed that residents in an assisted living facility or an independent living facility are able to walk around on their own safely. They're able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night by themselves safely. They need some care. They may need help to remember to take their medication. They may need assistance on occasion. But it is not expected that they need supervision. It is not expected that they need to be monitored at all times.

Therefore, if you are facing the challenging decision to put your loved one in a facility, first and foremost, figure out what their needs are. Talk with their doctor. If you don't live with your loved one, have a long and honest discussion with them about their capabilities. A lot of these people are transitioning from living independently in their own homes to a facility. Further, a lot of families struggle with the diminishing capacity of their loved one. It's very difficult to acknowledge that mom is getting older, that she can't do what she used to. And it can be very challenging for families.

Many, many families are forced to make the difficult decision to take a loved one's keys away because it is no longer safe for them to drive. Then there is the difficult decision to move a beloved parent or grandparent out of their own home where they live independently into a facility. This can be very challenging. This can be very difficult for your loved one to accept. But you need to be honest about their capabilities. You need to be honest about their abilities. Can they move around on their own? Can they get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom and go back to bed safely? Or are they at risk for falling and suffering a serious injury?

Some families have to face the challenge of two parents with different abilities. One may need nursing home care while the other is suitable to live on his or her own or to live in an independent living facility. The families must decide whether they want to keep these couples together or whether they want to put them in different facilities or in different locations.

If someone you love has been neglected or abused in any facility, an independent living facility, an assisted living facility, or a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can. You can always reach us at 1-800-OHIO LAW.