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Who are you caring for?
Which best describes their mobility?
How well are they maintaining their hygiene?
How are they managing their medications?
Does their living environment pose any safety concerns?
Fall risks, spoiled food, or other threats to wellbeing
Are they experiencing any memory loss?
Which best describes your loved one's social life?
Acknowledgment of Disclosures and Authorization
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
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Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
Remember, this assessment is not a substitute for professional advice.
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I have a Hero pill dispenser to help me and anyone I have assist me with caring for my Granny who has dementia. Costs about $40 per month. You set it up and the machine beeps when it's time. You push the button and the pills dispense. Makes things easier.
I agree with the other posters that this can be a warning sign that more help might be needed than just managing meds. My mom takes a lot of pills — her Parkinson’s meds alone account for twelve pills a day — but she knew what they were all for, and she was always good about sorting them and taking them on time. Then a few months ago I realized she was starting to have trouble, that instead of sorting them for the week she’d do just a day or dose at a time, and she might sleep through a pill time or forget that she skipped a dose. She had enough pills on the floor and tabletops to start her own pharmacy. I chalked that up to her arthritis, which made it difficult for her to handle the pills and caused her to drop a lot of them, so I started sorting them all for her once a week. That’s when I started to see that she was sometimes missing doses, and I knew that with her random sleep schedule, she wasn’t taking meds at regular times. I wasn’t able to be there every day to make sure she took them, and I was in the same spot as you, trying to figure out how to manage this, when she fell and broke her hip one night, which brought a whole cascade of health issues that ultimately resulted in her going to a long-term care facility. I see now that this is always where things were headed, and the med management was just one of several warning signs. The broken hip just accelerated the process. This might be the time, as others have said, to look into assisted living, memory care, and/or long-term care, if you haven’t done so already. It’s very likely that a health crisis will occur sooner or later, unfortunately, and the more you can do now to prepare logistically, legally, financially, etc., the more you can reduce your stress when that time comes. I wish you so much strength and peace. There’s nothing easy about any of this. But I do believe there are blessings and wisdom to be found too. Please keep us posted.
Aides usually can’t dispense but can supervise her taking them. You or a lpn would need to prepare the meds, which could be done once a week. But yes, this is where it gets dangerous without supervision. Medication management can be added as an a la carte service in Independent Living if she can manage all the other activities of daily living.
This is the point when my elder needed in-home help.
In my DH aunts case, her meds were all in the morning so a morning aide came in to help her with them. She already had home health to set the pills up in the pill box. The aide made sure she had her thyroid first w/o food and 30 min later the remainder of the meds along with a hot breakfast prepared by the aide. The first aide was for two hours and later extended to three hours. This worked for her for several years. I always requested any additional meds were kept on the morning only schedule. If she needed an antibiotic that was needed twice a day, I had to make arrangements for the aide to come back or to have someone else give her the evening dose.
I use four 7 day pill boxes: waking, breakfast, dinner and bedtime. I fill them every Saturday.
I keep the meds straight by using an OpenOffice spreadsheet, Each med is on a separate horizontal row. The vertical columns are labeled as: What (name/dose/common name), Why, How (dosing), When ( 1 column for each pill box), and a column for Notes. I put an X in which ever pill box column is appropriate for each med.
Every Saturday I use this file to refill the pill boxes. The Why column comes in very handy at times. I also keep Dr phone numbers and medical history dates at the bottom of the file. I have it in a landscape format and it prints on one page. This makes it so easy, even temporary caregivers can figure it out when I go on vacation.
I would first determine what she really needed to take. Cholesterol I would stop. After a certain age, who cares and Statins cause cognitive probems. My Mom was on a heart medicine to slow it down. Not needed after taking her thyroid med but still taking it.
Warning: When I realized my mother took all day to organize her (relatively simple) pills, I took over. What I didn’t immediately realize was, not only couldn’t she organize them, but she couldn’t process taking them. I had to be there morning, noon and evening to coax her along. In spite of that, I still found pills scattered about her house. In envelopes, behind standing picture frames, in tea cups, and in pockets. It was quite shocking. She is in care now.
Your mom need to be in care now; sadly people often enter into care because medications become too difficult to remember, manage and take. This may b ALF if she can manage, socialize, help herself, attend communal meals and etc; they will deliver her medications and evaluate her level of needed care. This is for their team, not a bunch of strangers, to evaluate; they and YOU know her best. I sure hope she can still do ALF as this will mean a much better and more private room with many of her own things around her, and a lower level of cost overall.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
In my DH aunts case, her meds were all in the morning so a morning aide came in to help her with them. She already had home health to set the pills up in the pill box. The aide made sure she had her thyroid first w/o food and 30 min later the remainder of the meds along with a hot breakfast prepared by the aide. The first aide was for two hours and later extended to three hours. This worked for her for several years.
I always requested any additional meds were kept on the morning only schedule. If she needed an antibiotic that was needed twice a day, I had to make arrangements for the aide to come back or to have someone else give her the evening dose.
I keep the meds straight by using an OpenOffice spreadsheet,
Each med is on a separate horizontal row.
The vertical columns are labeled as: What (name/dose/common name), Why, How (dosing), When ( 1 column for each pill box), and a column for Notes. I put an X in which ever pill box column is appropriate for each med.
Every Saturday I use this file to refill the pill boxes.
The Why column comes in very handy at times.
I also keep Dr phone numbers and medical history dates at the bottom of the file. I have it in a landscape format and it prints on one page. This makes it so easy, even temporary caregivers can figure it out when I go on vacation.
I agree, if she can afford it, a nice AL.
This may b ALF if she can manage, socialize, help herself, attend communal meals and etc; they will deliver her medications and evaluate her level of needed care.
This is for their team, not a bunch of strangers, to evaluate; they and YOU know her best.
I sure hope she can still do ALF as this will mean a much better and more private room with many of her own things around her, and a lower level of cost overall.
I wish you the best.