Quote:
Originally Posted by Buff
AHS sent a flaming pile of crap to my parent's place.
Can my dad dress himself? Check
Can my dad bathe himself? Check
Can me dad feed himself? Check
Does my mom cook and clean? Check
He doesn't need care.
My mom is burnt out.
Does he wander and get lost? No
Then she can just leave for a break for a few hours.
I'm over simplifying it a bit but that is the general gist of it.
I called Home Care to inform them of my dad being in the hospital and was told they don't have spaces for anyone but when the hospital is ready to discharge him the transition team will call.
He cannot go home. He'll wind up in the hospital again in less than a week.
Home Care in Lethbridge should be revamped. Fire all their people who make these decisions because care for people that need it is not happening.
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Dementia is becoming a bigger and bigger problems, and the provinces from coast to coast just don't have the resources to deal with it.
There are precious few beds for dementia patients in the public spaces and it gets far worse when there's a lock down requirement for patients suffering from things like wandering, or violent outbursts or worse.
There's a reason why the geriatric and geriatric psychiatry wards are packed in hospitals across the country, because there are no public beds, they're being warehoused in hospitals and draining their resources. Ontario for example will take people in the hospitals and shove them into the first public care bed they can find and that could be across the province and if you refuse it the hospitals will bill you for the daily costs of housing, at least that was their plan.
It sounds like the evaluation that they did with your Dad being able to clothe, feed and bathe himself, and he's not a wander threat, nor a violence threat (That you know about). Then the case worker doesn't have many choices on the recommendation, though I'm surprised that they didn't bring up in home care.
When my mom went into the hospital we talked to her charge doctor, and he was pretty sympathetic, and wrote up a form in terms of her mental competency and saying that she couldn't go home, that went a long way in getting a proper transition nurse. But by that point, my mom was pretty low capacity and had violence issues so they couldn't send her home to Dad who wouldn't have taken her anyways.
You mentioned that this is Lethbridge which brings up a whole other bunch of bed shortages. When I looked in the AHS site for a list of AHS facilities for dementia care there were:10 auxillary hospitals operated by AHS, in Lethbridge, Coaldale, Tabor Brooks etc. There were next to no Dementia Care facilities in Alberta that are run by the province. The mass majority of them are either fully private, which if you can find space can get your dad in quickly but the costs are very high, or Voluntary which is the not for profit and faith based facilities that would be cheaper.
Here's the list I found
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/7f4f...ed-sla-ltc.pdf
But to give you an example St Michael's Health Center has 48 beds in dementia care in Lethbridge, Buffalo Grace Manner has like 100 beds in their supportive living facility, however they're only configured for mild to moderate dementia. Good Samartan has 10 beds for dementia patients. There's a reason why for profit senior care facilities and especially ones with memory care are springing up like weeds.
Personally seniors care throughout the country needs to be revamped badly, we have an aging population and you could argue that Dementia is an epidemic, when politicians are rambling about the health care crisis and doctor shortages and nurse shortages and long wait times for emergency and cancer treatment, don't you wonder why they don't bring up elder care?
If you can get your doctor to be an advocate for you with your dad with AHS it might help, but just based on the criteria that you listed your Dad would be at the bottom of the list in terms of urgent need.
With my mom it was either she would stay in the hospital until we could find a public space for her, which was unlikely even with a transition nurse, the other thing is that we could pick two facilities, and if they didn't open up and AHS found bed space for her in Edmonton, we could refuse once but after that we could lose our choices and place on the list. So we did what we had to do and put her into private care while praying every night that the money wouldn't run out before they found a spot. My mom was in private memory care for a year before she died and the transition team couldn't find a bed for her level of dementia needs.
It sounds like the hospital wants to discharge your dad, and they don't see a reason why he can't go home in his current condition, because your not on a transition nurses radar right now any kind of public situation is a long way off. The only thing I can recommend and I know it sucks, is to look at home care options to help your mom and your dad, look at occasional respite options to give your mom a break while your dad stays in a facility for a few days. Or start phoning voluntary non profits and seeing what they offer for permanent care.
But it would also pay to get the doctor and hospital treating your dad on your side as they can really help, working with your family doctor and getting referrals from there too. Because with the case workers they have a pretty high work load and stringent requirements.