My Dad has a lot of health issues which is why I've moved him down to assisted living near me, because I was on a plane every other week this summer. I know he had some short term memory issues that have become increasingly apparent as I spend more time with him, but no diagnosis.
He had an episode related to one of his chronic conditions about 10 days ago, was in the hospital, and is now moved to a rehab. But I feel like his cognitive abilities have gone downhill very, very dramatically. Some of it might be meds, but it still feels very sudden. It's like he went from being a little confused but able to have a nice conversation over the dinner table with my family, to screaming inappropriate things and pulling out his IV and not even knowing where he is or why. In less than two weeks!
I feel like it's an uphill battle with the doctors because they meet him and think "agitated senior with dementia" and I'm like, but no, this is NEW.
1. The medication the nursing home's medical director puts her on to keep her quiet and compliant
2. lntense isolation forced on residents when covid quarantines are in place
Currently, the facility has my mother on two anti-psychotics and when they put her on the first one, i noticed an immediate decline (at the time, i did not know they had put her on it because they didn't tell me but I had visited her one week and she was normal, and two weeks later at a window visit, she was literally drooling). i am now insisting they wean her off both. I am at a loss as to what to do about the isolation, though. Social interactions are extremely important to seniors and many studies show that lack of such increases the risk of dementia and altzheimers https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html . In the area my mother lives, one positive covid test is cause for a complete facility lockdown. Patients may not leave their room and they can have no visitors. During these lockdowns the only interaction they have with another human is when an aide or other worker brings them their meals, cleans them up, etc. The rest of the time, they lay in bed doing nothing. Our lockdowns have lasted as long as two months. Add to this - low income nursing homes have used covid restrictions as a means to reduce their staff and the services they provide. I don't know what the answer is to all this. If you open your mouth to the nursing home (which I've done) they just blame it on the state's covid restrictions and lack of staff to be able to provide adequate activities during these times.
Hospital Delerium