Posted on 09/14/2021 8:52:28 AM PDT by Bearshouse
Aegis Living is an assisted living facility. These whistle blowers talk about the things they've seen and done to falsify records.
Watching it now.
A chemical restraint was given to a patient to get her to take the Covid vaccine.
And she died.
I’m in a position of having to consider skilled care for my wife and these stories scare the hell out of me.
Especially when you know this is considered one of the best of the assisted living companies . With the charges that they are talking about in this film, I wonder if it might actually be cheaper to consider hiring one of these out of work nurses as a personal care giver?
I know a woman who has worked for years as an in-home caregiver with no training. She tends to meals, bathing, and makes sure the lady takes her medications on time and gets to doctor appointments.
My M-i-L and her sister went into a facility together and shared a room. Both of my Sisters in law are nurses. They checked on Mom everyday. The people who have family coming in all the time are the ones that receive actual care.
“I’m in a position of having to consider skilled care for my wife and these stories scare the hell out of me.”
God Bless You! I took care of my Dad for the 12 years prior to his passing, and making sure he was taken care of properly was practically a full-time job!
Not sure where you are in the process, but the things that worked for me were:
*Look for your local chapter of ADRC (Aging and Disabilities Resource Center) and ask for an in-home assessment and sign up for EVERY program they offer you. These people are a God-Send and have services available for you to keep your wife comfortable at home longer than you may had anticipated.
*Research, research and research some more the facilities you’re interested in. Talk to other residents and their family members if you’re able. Get the best facility you can afford.
*Make. Yourself. Known. Make sure you know the staff on a first-name basis. Sadly, they change a LOT, so you’ll be making yourself known to new people, sometimes weekly.
*Sit in. If your Wife is able to get together with others in the Day Room, or for Church, etc., show up. Again - making yourself known is VERY important. Show up for whatever activities they invite family members to.
*Remember key staff with thank you cards, flowers for the nursing Staff, cards and chocolate at Christmastime. People remember. ;)
*If you suspect ANY funny business, talk to the Social Worker who is in residence, and if you need to, call the police! Elder Abuse has become a HUGE thing - right up there with child abuse.
My Dad had a few ‘fall’ injuries near the end, but his dementia was so bad and any time he got a UTI he’d get a little nutty, so short of tying him to the bed, which they are NOT allowed to do, those were understandable. Adding a safety bar to his bed helped, too, though he somehow managed to get OVER it one time. I wasn’t HAPPY about it, but he wasn’t being abused.
*** The people who have family coming in all the time are the ones that receive actual care. ***
My 93 yr old Mom was sent to a nursing/rehab center about three years ago following pneumonia. They said she would be there about 45 days. I hired private nurses to stay with her after the 2nd day staff left her in a chair for so long, the entire upholstered recliner was completely saturated by urine.. After just shy of two weeks they sent her home. The facility really didn’t like having private nurses keeping an eye on my Mom and them.
She is celebrating her 97th Birthday today at home.
You should be scared—those places are trouble—no substitute for family.
If you must go there then you need to visit her every day and get to know every member of the staff from the management to the janitors on a first name basis.
If you make it friendly and personal, they are more likely to treat your wife with care and compassion.
I'll bet.They don't like being watched.
The place where my M-i-L was staying was very nice. Mom had been a school teacher and found some residents that had never learned to read so she started reading classes in the day room. The staff loved her as it kept bored residents busy.
All good suggestions! We took care of my FiL as long as we physically could (5 years, with 1 year living at home) then to a very reputable memory care facility 2 miles away. My FiL’s nurse and I text every day and we visit every other day at all sorts of times. We have an Echo in his room and can “drop in” at any time as well. The staff know this and do not mind.
We know all the caregivers on a first name basis. The activities director and I chat once a week to see how he’s doing with participating and such. We send goodies regularly and flowers recently.
There are no covid restrictions, no vaccine requirements and the only time they disallowed visitors was for one week when a staffer tested positive. No other residents or staff got sick so they reopened the next week.
Masks are suggested, not required.
Families are allowed to visit any time day or night - overnight they have a code for families to unlock the doors.
Residents are encouraged hourly to come out of their rooms and be with the group in activities or the common area. They do not allow residents to sit alone and “waste away”.
They have group activities every hour, and start the day with hymns and a devotional time.
Wanted to add, we debated over having a 24/7 caregiver in our home instead of memory care, but his children all felt he would like the Memory care better. It was a good call, because he has enjoyed it and has a group of guys that he hangs out with one “lady friend”.
My Dad was in Socialist Dane County, so the last day I physically saw him was March 12, 2020 - the day they locked everything and everyone down there, and all across Wisconsin.
They would not let me see him at all. He died May 31, 2020.
The only consolation for me was that Cancer got him and NOT Covid, AND the fact that he was pretty far gone and was completely drugged up for pain. He wouldn’t have known me if I was able to see him, and he DID die holding a Hospice workers hand, so he wasn’t completely alone. :(
I’m doing some serious planning for my own future care, making sure the right people in my life (after Beau) are in the right place at the right time.
Old Age Is Not For Sissies! ;)
I am sorry to think of a fellow freeper in this position, and I wish there was some way I could help.
If you can get home health services where you live, that is a better option. Contact the local vocational schools, see if any of them have CNA or PSS students in need of a job. That could help with bathing and such. You are better off paying a kid to come in and help you a few times a week out of your pocket under the table if you can. The elderly care home industry is the pits. You could even find a group of other people in your same predicament and share employment of a person with one of them - 2-3 days a week for each, alternating. Some people in healthcare want to work just part-time. Unless you can spend most of the time there, I would be very reluctant to trust the care in a nursing home. I am sorry to have to say this to you, it’s bad to be in a position like that, but what I am telling you is the truth.
Mrs. AV, RN
That is terrible, I’m so sorry 😞
One of the reasons we chose the one we did as their policy is not to shut down (except temporarily when they have a case). One of the nurses told me that even if it makes them at higher risk to catch covid, they were not going to keep their loved ones away. Dementia is hard enough on them, let them enjoy their family while they can. My FiL only knows us about half the time now. It is such a terrible disease.
I’m glad your dad wasn’t alone at least. Still, that must have been so hard on you.
Sounds like a place that cares. I know many elderly in assisted living would have rather died that being confined and not see family
My husband was in an assisted care home in Nashville, TN. They refused to help him with and monitor his meds and personal care. Although he was still mobile, he’d had a stroke and had problèms swallowing anything. His family tried to get him into a nursing care facility but the system is really weird there, and they couldn’t get him in. Thè facilities didn’t want to accept medicare and medicaid and wanted the family to pay for his care out of pocket..so they refused my husband the care he needed. Eventually he ended up in the hospital with aspiration pnumonia. He didn’t want all the life support and stomach tubes and he kept ripping it all out which complicated things a bit. So, he died on his own terms. His family and I were shocked by the heartless lack of care they had to fight with.
A very short time later, his daughter fought with triple negative breast cancer and died just recently.
Moral of the story, don’t get sick in Nashville unless you’re a millionaire.
Institutionalized care is by it’s very nature one-size-fits-all. Awful to be at the mercy of. I could no longer in good conscience be part of it after basically holding elders hostage for months at a time while they pined away, unable to understand why they had been abandoned by families aching to see them. What was barely functional in varying degrees before Covid is a disaster now. The night I gave my notice we had 3 CNAs to take care of 89 residents. They had actually scheduled 4 and one called out sick. As Supervisor I was responsible for the care delivered that night. No more.
That nursing home has hemorrhaged staff since the vaccine mandate by CMMS occurred(they hold the purse-strings for Medicare and Medicaid re-imbursement, so a money thing). I can’t imagine what it is like there now. Something from a nightmare.
My condolences on the loss of your husband, he should not have had to go through that.
Mrs AV, RN
BFLR
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