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Log inMaine facilities lack space for those with dementia
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Maine facilities lack space for those with dementia
by Outspoken on Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:32 am
Maine facilities lack space for those with dementia
By Meg Haskell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
The elderly man was brought to the emergency room late at night, agitated, confused and angry. He swore loudly at his distressed wife and other family members. He grabbed and hit at the nurses, his old hands still strong and capable of inflicting pain.
His aggressive behavior had been getting worse over recent days and weeks, his wife said. Doctors had ruled out mental illness, stroke and other treatable causes, leaving a diagnosis of age-related dementia. Family members had been trying to arrange for a home care agency to come and help out. But the man’s behavior had changed too quickly, too dramatically. Now he was a danger to himself and a threat to his family.
"They bring them to the ER. Where else do you go?" asked Dr. Joseph Babbitt, an emergency room physician at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. Babbitt has seen too many of these cases recently — families in despair, anger, frustration, handing over their unmanageable elderly relatives to the professional staff at the nearest hospital.
And, too often, that’s where they stay. Because finding a nursing home that has the appropriate facilities, staff and space to care for someone with dementia is close to impossible in Maine.
It’s not just family members who reluctantly throw in the towel, Babbitt said. Even nursing homes and assisted living facilities may find themselves unable to cope with the aggression that can be associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. When a resident’s behavior tests the limits of the staff’s patience, when adjusting medications doesn’t help, when the person becomes a threat to other residents, too often there’s nowhere to turn except the emergency room at the nearest hospital.
Babbitt quoted the poet Robert Frost: "‘Home is the place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.’ Now, that’s the emergency room."
Rick Erb, executive director of the Maine Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes in Maine, confirmed in a recent interview that the shortage of places for Mainers with difficult behavior has been a serious problem for several years and is likely to get worse as the population ages. Only three Maine nursing homes offer specialized long-term psychiatric units, he said, with higher levels of trained staff to handle aggressive patients and locked units to prevent residents from wandering. None of the three is north of Waterville or west of Gorham.
Erb said it’s up to the state to fund more of these high-level programs for Mainers with dementia.
"But right now, there is no movement toward creating more special units to deal with these psychological issues," he said.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=168588&zoneid=176
(Bangor Daily News/John Clarke Russ)
By Meg Haskell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
The elderly man was brought to the emergency room late at night, agitated, confused and angry. He swore loudly at his distressed wife and other family members. He grabbed and hit at the nurses, his old hands still strong and capable of inflicting pain.
His aggressive behavior had been getting worse over recent days and weeks, his wife said. Doctors had ruled out mental illness, stroke and other treatable causes, leaving a diagnosis of age-related dementia. Family members had been trying to arrange for a home care agency to come and help out. But the man’s behavior had changed too quickly, too dramatically. Now he was a danger to himself and a threat to his family.
"They bring them to the ER. Where else do you go?" asked Dr. Joseph Babbitt, an emergency room physician at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. Babbitt has seen too many of these cases recently — families in despair, anger, frustration, handing over their unmanageable elderly relatives to the professional staff at the nearest hospital.
And, too often, that’s where they stay. Because finding a nursing home that has the appropriate facilities, staff and space to care for someone with dementia is close to impossible in Maine.
It’s not just family members who reluctantly throw in the towel, Babbitt said. Even nursing homes and assisted living facilities may find themselves unable to cope with the aggression that can be associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. When a resident’s behavior tests the limits of the staff’s patience, when adjusting medications doesn’t help, when the person becomes a threat to other residents, too often there’s nowhere to turn except the emergency room at the nearest hospital.
Babbitt quoted the poet Robert Frost: "‘Home is the place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.’ Now, that’s the emergency room."
Rick Erb, executive director of the Maine Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes in Maine, confirmed in a recent interview that the shortage of places for Mainers with difficult behavior has been a serious problem for several years and is likely to get worse as the population ages. Only three Maine nursing homes offer specialized long-term psychiatric units, he said, with higher levels of trained staff to handle aggressive patients and locked units to prevent residents from wandering. None of the three is north of Waterville or west of Gorham.
Erb said it’s up to the state to fund more of these high-level programs for Mainers with dementia.
"But right now, there is no movement toward creating more special units to deal with these psychological issues," he said.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=168588&zoneid=176
(Bangor Daily News/John Clarke Russ)
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
