Mother's insistance on not doing things I ask

[jl4352]

Hi All,

My Mom is 99 years old and was in an Independant CCRC up until 7 months ago when she moved to the assisted living facility. The oversight there has not been what we thought it would be and Mom has fallen 3 times! She absolutely refuses to wear her medical pendant despite all my arguments that she would not have been on the floor for hours if she had worn it. I don't know what to do because she is a fall risk so I worry all the time and I spend as much time as I can helping her. Any suggestions?

[GailL1]

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@jl4352 wrote:

Hi All,

My Mom is 99 years old and was in an Independant CCRC up until 7 months ago when she moved to the assisted living facility. The oversight there has not been what we thought it would be and Mom has fallen 3 times! She absolutely refuses to wear her medical pendant despite all my arguments that she would not have been on the floor for hours if she had worn it. I don't know what to do because she is a fall risk so I worry all the time and I spend as much time as I can helping her. Any suggestions?

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She is in an Assisted Living Facility - Where Are They ???

Caregivers at the facility should be going in and out almost constantly doing one thing or another, if nothing else but to check on her.

There should also be several "call" buttons in her room and in the bathroom.

Where my mother was the buttons had pull chains on them, easily reached even if they are on the floor.

At 99, she probably thinks she can do what she wants to - I would.

It might be time to up the care level.  It might be time for your Mom and you to think about a more stability device - walker to be the least, perhaps a wheel chair - walkabout or mobilized.  An alert device is used after the fact - you need to think more about preventing the falls.

Any particular place or time this is occurring?  Like if at night when she might be going to the bathroom?  She should be able to call the staff to help her at such times.  Is she tripping over something in her room or is she just unstable and HR feet just get tangled up?

Either way, I'd say she has to be checked on more often, helped more to get from place A to place B and/or she needs a different / better mobility device to help her steadiness.

Wearing the Alert Pin seems to be far down on the list since the goal is to prevent the fall in the 1st place.  If the facility is using it as a safety measure - they need to use some other methods along with it cause it's use is after the fact rather than for prevention.  

Be proactive at the facility or move her to a different one - one of the problems with CCRC in my opinion.

I am sure you understand the severity of a bad fall at her age.  

[nyadrn]

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@jl4352 wrote:

Hi All,

My Mom is 99 years old and was in an Independant CCRC up until 7 months ago when she moved to the assisted living facility. The oversight there has not been what we thought it would be and Mom has fallen 3 times! She absolutely refuses to wear her medical pendant despite all my arguments that she would not have been on the floor for hours if she had worn it. I don't know what to do because she is a fall risk so I worry all the time and I spend as much time as I can helping her. Any suggestions?

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May I ask why she does not want to wear  her pendant?