The elderly and drugs

[exFarmerS]

Please god if/when this happens to me, give me all the drugs you can...


Elderly Alzheimer's patient faces ejection

ctvbc.ca

Updated: Thu. Jun. 24 2010 10:12 PM ET
Heather Elliot is running out of time to keep her mother Ellen Elliot, an 89-year-old Alzheimer's patient, from being kicked out of St. Jude's Nursing Home on Friday.
"Friday is drawing near and I'm not sure what's going on," Heather told CTV News.
In a letter to the family, St. Jude's staff cited concerns that Ellen was agitated, not sleeping, and suggested she may have entered the rooms of other residents at night.
Heather won't allow nurses to administer a sedative to her mother to help her sleep. If Ellen doesn't start taking medication, she'll be forced to leave St. Jude's.
Now Heather's been told the process to have her mother involuntarily committed to hospital has begun.
"It's been a nightmare for me. I haven't slept. I haven't eaten. I've worried terribly about my mother, and what's going to happen to her," she said. "I don't want to see her taken to a hospital where they'll just try different drugs on her."
Vancouver Coastal Health won't comment directly, but insists it's not an unusual step to have a resident assessed in hospital.
At the same time, the story has sparked a public debate about who gets to decide the course of treatment when Ellen Elliot no longer can.
Gloria Gutman, the president of the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse, believes the situation could bring up legal implications.
"It is interesting because it's one that starts to get onto issues of Charter rights and freedoms," she said.
Alice Mann cares for relatives who have Alzheimer's. She says not everyone treats people suffering from the disease properly.
"It's an ongoing problem where it's easier to slap a pill in their mouth rather than to actually deal with them," she said.
Health Minister Kevin Falcon sides with the nursing home.
"That is a very challenging situation for the institution because they have to try and operate it for the benefit of all the patients there," he said. "I would hope they'd be able to resolve it, but if they can't, I would support the decision that St. Jude's has to make."
Heather continues to speak with staff about her mother's care, as a lawyer suggested she do. She holds on to the hope that they'll allow her mother to stay at the nursing home drug-free.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan

[Queen K]

Work with the elderly and dementia every day.

Heather needs a wake up call to help her understand that OTHER patients also have rights and the health or lack of health of one can affect the entire ward, if not facility. When patients are being used to help other patients, then the quality of life decreases for those being imposed upon. And don't think I don't see it.

"I want my mom to be drug free" seems to be a red neck, backwoods, backwards, ignorant and stupid way of understanding treatment for dementia, because there is no rationalization with people who have forgotten basic living skills. They have windows of clarity, which can be more frightening than having the disease itself.

For example, the ability to reactivate an oven, but then forget what's in there and for how long it's been cooking. Suddenly knowing the code to get out of a locked facility but having no idea where to go or what danger is, like suddenly crossing a road with looking both ways for traffic. Knowing that a toaster will toast bread, but not knowing when to stop putting too many slices of bread in, three? four? And burning the heck out of it all. (That one is last week).

Heather sounds like she is in complete denial of what the disease does. Sorry but the medications are what people use to slow down the disease, ease the symptoms and help people cope with their new reality. I see it every day where I work. The son who dumps his mom off in the elevator with her suitcase and med box, but won't escort her to her apartment door, four floors up. She is scared and uncertain as to how to find her room without a set of cues.

[Queen K]

Sorry Alice Mann, but your attitude is an on going problem too.

No one slaps a pill in someone's mouth and then doesn't have to deal with them. You make it sound like the med. side of care is evil and makes them comatose. In fact, the meds help people cope with their losses, be it physical pain or mental distress because they know what is happening to them. The care worker still has a multitude of tasks to do with the patient, so no one is ever running away and not working out their routine for the morning.

(I refuse to characterize this as "dealing with them.")

Morning routines can be simple or complex depending on the progress of onset dementia. Sometimes alot of reorientating has to be done, if it is appropriate for the stage they are in. Sometimes reorientating is too stressful and causes agitation and anger. The deal is knowing which gentle care approach is appropiate for whom.

The Heather of this story sounds like a lot of people in a deep denial that there are things going on. For once, Kevin Falcon is right, side with the hospital who's staff sees the minute details of what is going on. And for this to hit the news now, there likely has been confict for too long.

[exFarmerS]

I don't want to be "dealt with", whatever that means. Drug the hell out of me if I'm acting out, wandering the streets, being agitated or shrieking in fear. Drug me, feed me and keep me clean if I'm not able to bump myself off before I get to that state.

[Queen K]

When I talk about patients helping other patients, yes, it happens all the time. Because the nurse or care aide cannot be at one persons side for their entire shift. Because in INDEPENDANT living homes, not be confused with seniors long term care facilities, have many people living there on the edges of needing to be "placed." They are on waitlists that are a mile long, and need more care than the independant facility is licensed to give. Guess who is helping whom. Other residents. Yup, the nintey year old with few health issues ends up pushing someone in a wheelchair, or directing those with mild dementia. Sometimes it gets so bad that they request a table change because they are depended upon too much.

Sorry, but I see this all the time. One dementia patient has taken it upon herself to help another. Awww you say,how cute. Only this behaviour engenders complete dependance and reliance and the relationship becomes a millstone around someone's neck.

[Phoenix Within]

The Heather of this story sounds like a lot of people in a deep denial that there are things going on. For once, Kevin Falcon is right, side with the hospital who's staff sees the minute details of what is going on. And for this to hit the news now, there likely has been confict for too long.

for everything you've said Queenie! The thing that gets me, is the facility isn't saying she needs to be drugged 24/7, they're asking to have her sedated at nights. Sleep is wonderful cure-all for a lot of problems, agitation associated with dementia is one of them. I've talked to family members of clients with dementia who have stated their mother/father/spouse is completely off the wall if they don't get a decent sleep. This daughter's fear, although coming from the best of intentions (the same thing the road to hell is paved with), is actually doing her mother more harm than good.

[Bsuds]

I don't want to be "dealt with", whatever that means. Drug the hell out of me if I'm acting out, wandering the streets, being agitated or shrieking in fear. Drug me, feed me and keep me clean if I'm not able to bump myself off before I get to that state.

Even better, If it gets to that point then shoot me!

[flamingfingers]

Heather is guilty of elder abuse. She lets her mother suffer sleepless nights, agitation and confusion simply because HEATHER does not want to allow professional staff to treat her mother appropriately and compassionately!! Are there no other family members around who can advocate for this poor confused mother? Is Heather just going to make her mother suffer endlessly and needlessly? Ignorance is one thing. Downright cruelty is another!

[motorhomebabe]

I lost my mother with dementia a little over a year ago.My Dad and I were able to keep her at home till almost the end . Without drugs ,that would not have been posssible.Dad was very cautious about how much she got ,cutting her back when she appeared to become too sedated .I think it is cruel to let a person suffer needless anxiety in a case like that.The Government steps in for childern,they should for cases like this too.

[flamingfingers]

The Government steps in too often and usurps what the medical professionals know is best for their patients. As an example, years (and yes, I mean years) ago, it was impossible for doctors to prescribe narcotics to pain-ridden cancer patients, because of the fear that they would become 'addicted'. A dedicated core of doctors refuted this and won the ability to provide potent narcotics to terminal cancer patients suffering excruciating pain. The end truth was that even if the patient became 'addicted' they would die before the 'addiction' made any real difference. And it provided a patient with a pain-free and more comfortable life exit.
Leave the fricken' government out of passing more useless laws!

[Queen K]

Ya I was always puzzled about the "addicted" part because what I see alot of is doctor's addicted to burning up people with incurable cancer and having them get homecare with unimaginable pain processes.

Of course these days we still have elderly patients talking about being "addicted" as if they'd be Kelowna's next crackhead.

[grammafreddy]

My mother's dementia was caused by her cardiologist. Not every doctor is to be trusted in every case. I still miss her every day.