...at what happened early this morning. Around 3:30 this morning, my dog started barking. I heard my dad get up and I figured he was going to let my dog out. Then I heard my dad open the front door. Then I heard my mom get up. My dad came back in and he sounded really angry. Curiosity got the better of me, so I went in there to see what was going on. It turns out that my dog heard this little old man (he's 92) talking to himself, asking for help. He was standing by our fence. My dad said that the old man had told him he had been out there for about NINETY minutes, by himself, in the cold (it was really cold last night, despite the heat today). The man was disoriented. My mom called the sherriff because at the time we didn't know who the man was. My dad, after talking to him for awhile and covering him with a blanket and stuff, figured out he had escaped from the nursing home a few houses down from us. He got out through a side door that had NO alarm on it. My dad went over there and banged on the door (it's a private nursing home in a house). The lady who owns it answered the door and got quite p*ssed at being woken up. It turns out that her night nurse was ASLEEP.

Now I ask you, what the hell kind of place is this where there isn't alarms on all the doors and windows and the night nurse falls asleep? I could understand the alarm situation if this were a big nursing home, but it's not. It's in a house. How hard is it to get alarms on all the doors? To top it off, the lady got quite agitated when she found out we had called the sherriff. I wonder if this place already has been reported before. I can't believe this BS. I've already decided that come this Monday, I will be calling some state agencies to figure out what I can do. The sherriff did write a report, but that's about all he could do. :-\\

It sounds like the home is incapable of keeping the old folks in, Jessica. It's a bit bad though when the nurse working her shift is asleep.

Wow, that's really bad!  I don't blame you for being outraged, Jessica.

I can totally support your being pissed....I hope the people in "Charge" get thiers >:(

Wow, I am outraged too.  I feel so bad for the old man.  I hope something changes there and quick.

The old man probably wanted to escape because the nursing home was filthy. The sad fact is most nursing employees and management don't do their jobs in providing clean and safe quarters for their clients. When something like this happens, they blame the patient(s) themselves. This is just another example of corporate snobbiness and irresponsibility. I hope that the state will find this elderly person a good home with people that really care. And I wish you good luck, Jess.

That's terrible.  >:(

That's dreadful.  And to think someone is actually paying for this poor bloke's "care" (or lack of!)  ::)

That is very dangerous and unhealthy.  Good for you for reporting the incident, Jessica.

Jess,

You definitely need to report this inicdent to your local adult protective services agency or equivalent.  And don't let go until you get an answer from them that is to your satisfaction.

It is difficult to take care of some elderly people in their '90's, and on occasion even in a well-run home, someone is gonna sneak out.  But the attitude that the home showed to you when you speaks VOLUMES.  In a home where the owners care, the woman would hav ebeen profusely greatful to your Dad.

Now is it a "nursing home" or is it a "personal care home"?  There are varying rules and regulations depending upon how a facility is licensed (ie alarms and so on).  Personal Care Homes have a lower standard of equipment, etc, because they are not intended for residents with severe mental incapacities.

Kudos to your father... he sounds like a good man.  :)

LB

It doesn't matter if it is a nursing home, or someones house where they take in people
there must be rules governing this situation.  Hopefully there is a family involved that
could be contacted.  Don't count on the police contacting the family, and you can be sure
the home won't let them know.  Contact an elder services agency, hopefully there is something
that can be done, this is gross negligence, the man could have died.

LB, it's a nursing home.

I was thinking of making a call to my old caseworker from Medi-Cal. HER mom is in this home and who better to get the ball rolling than a woman who works for the government?

LB, it's a nursing home.

I was thinking of making a call to my old caseworker from Medi-Cal. HER mom is in this home and who better to get the ball rolling than a woman who works for the government?


Depends what kind of government worker you're dealing with.  Some have passion, others are marking time till 5:00.  I hope your caseworker is one of the passionate ones!

It is really sad. Unfortunately there are too many nursing homes that are like that. We had one in town that was reciently closed down because the people who operated it were doing some "creative bookkeeping". They charged their residental utilities as a business expense (so the nursing home paid for heating their home), they had falsified time sheets and forged payroll checks for phantom employees, etc. They were fined $75.000 and are now on parole. The sad part about this was that nursing home was in financal straits and had to close down-which is really needed. Now, there are some people in town trying to get a new nursing home started-but you can bet that whoever is put in charge will be watched very closely.

I do find it a travasty that people really don't care about the older folks of our community. They won't be with us too much longer so who cares. Well, I do!




Cat

Depends what kind of government worker you're dealing with.  Some have passion, others are marking time till 5:00.  I hope your caseworker is one of the passionate ones!


She is, for lack of a better term, a hippie. ;D

Seriously, she was a real sweet lady who even asked me how this nursing home was because she put her mother in it. At the time, I told her it was a good nursing home. I think my opinion has changed, especially after I think back to how frequently ambulances are called to this residence. :-X


I do find it a travasty that people really don't care about the older folks of our community. They won't be with us too much longer so who cares. Well, I do!




Cat


As do I. For one semester when I was in high school, I worked at the nursing home my grandfather was in. It only lasted one semester because of the things I saw, such as the 400 pound nurse who smacked a wheelchair bound lady upside the head for some unknown reason. Or the Veterans who were largely ignored. Or the bedridden people laying in their own filth. This place was a travesty, and at the time, I didn't know I could do anything about it. Luckily, the month after I left, someone DID report them, and their a$$es got shut down. They didn't lay a hand on my grandfather (thank god!), but that was probably because one of my family members was always around. But those other people....it broke my heart to see how their families just put them in there and forgot about them. I tried to spend as much time as I could with each of them, but it was hard. :(

I do find it a travasty that people really don't care about the older folks of our community. They won't be with us too much longer so who cares. Well, I do!


Very commendable, Catwoman. It seems so ironic that some people who care for the elderly are so myopic that they don't realise they will eventually become old themselves.

I do find it a travasty that people really don't care about the older folks of our community. They won't be with us too much longer so who cares. Well, I do!
Cat


I agree with you, Cat.  It is sad that older people are treated so badly sometimes.  They are the people who raised us, took care of us, etc.  They also have great stories if you take the time to ask.

The one conversation I had with my Grandpa about WWII and his Purple Heart was a great conversation that I will never forget.  Especially when he asked if I would like to see where he got wounded.  He got shot in the butt, so I said not really.  He actually meant the picture of the beach on Iwo Jima where he was. ;D

My mother is 84 years old and the sweetest lady anyone every met.  She has senile dementia
now and my brother stays home to care for here while my sister works(they all live in the
family home).  Someone has to be with her 24 hours a day and it is very difficult, but we are
so afraid of putting her in a nursing home for the above reasons.  A good nursing home would
be best for her, but whenever we find one that seems OK, we hear this or that about it.  She is able
to go to an adult day care facility which is good. The part that aggravates me most is that my father
was a WWII vet, then worked in a VA hospital for 30 years, while driving cab nights, after he retired
he still drove cab.  My mother worked as a sales lady before she married and after the youngest(me)
was old enough for high school, and retired from that.  With all that my mothers' social security comes
to $642 a month.  I shudder to think of people in her same situation who don't have children to care
for them.  It's just not right.

There's no limit to how offending situations for innocent human beings can be...the poor man suffered, there simply MUST be more atrocities happening to him that your neighborhood, Nerd Princess, hasn't heard of....there has to be...quite possibly some sort of abuse of some sort, especially if the caretaker involved was mad that you called a sheriff...or quite possibly any sort of law enforcement. Unsecured houses can only mean madness going on within, especially if the place proclaims to specialize in elderly care, yet has no connection to any major franchise. He was trying to escape madness going on within before he got driven mad, there's no doubt in my mind. I sense abuse going on inside that home, and things are most likely to get their darkest before pitch black.

Darkness lurks about in the house in question, I sense it from your post. Try to find a way to have the house investigated as well as the people who claim to take care of the elderly within, a full scale investigation. Nothing on Earth moves situations like the one you described, or any situation, as much as folks such as yourself, instead of saying "we have to right to trifile with affairs not ours", saying "we're going to locate what darkness lies within and bring it to justice, come hell or high water."

I was talking to a friend about this today. She works in a nursing home and sees a lot of what goes on. She said that the night shift is usually very laxed and often falls asleep. I asked her if her facility has alarms on the door so if one of the patiences tries to "make a run for it"  :-\\ that they will know. She said yes but she also told me that few pay any attention to them. I do understand that it is not unusual for people in nursing homes to go wandering around. Many of them suffer from dementia, or something else where half the time they have no idea where or even who they are. I have read many times in the paper about someone from a nursing home went wondering and they had a search. That is why the staff has to keep an eye on them-for their safety. Those newspaper articles seemed to be about the same nursing home. HMMMM. It seems to me that they really should do something differently. Maybe they have for all I know. I really think that this country should be doing a much better job of providing care to our oldest members.



Ok, rant is over.




Cat