Residents Rights – Nursing Homes
Discussion
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Some while ago SWMBO worked at a certain nursing home. In this home, along with its usual clientele, there lives a younger chap, let’s call him Fred, who is there because of a fairly serious motorbike crash that has left him both physically damaged and brain damaged.
Fred is unable to walk or do anything to care for himself and his speech is limited to “yes” and “no”. He spends a fair amount of time in his bed but they do get him up into his chair for some of the day so that he can watch TV. He doesn’t seem to get a lot of visitors and SWMBO likens him to the gorilla on the island at Longleat House, plenty of people passing by but in reality he only has the TV for company.
SWMBO appreciates that he is brain damaged but believes, because he can at least say a couple of words and because of the way he has responded to things she and other people have said to him, that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with comprehending people – more that his brain damage gives him a problem communicating with them. She is firmly of the opinion that with some appropriate therapy, his communication skills could be significantly improved.
When SWMBO started working at the place his responses to people were fairly limited. At this stage Fred had been in the home for somewhere around seven years. Through studying him and making an effort to communicate with him, which was copied to some extent by others there, he became a more lively and responsive person in a matter of weeks.
Because of his circumstances we are making the assumption that his surviving parent is his “legal guardian”. However this parent is themselves infirm and cannot visit Fred as often as we would assume they would like to. Fred would of course, again we assume, be classed as a vulnerable adult.
The nub of our concern is that Fred has, to our knowledge, only been out of the home on one occasion in the 7+ years that he has been there. He spends the vast majority of his time in his room and only very occasionally gets brought downstairs amongst the other residents. To our knowledge they don’t even wheel him round the gardens to give the poor chap some fresh air.
We feel that increasing his contact with other people will improve not only his spirits but will further stimulate his brain and thus possibly aid, if only in a small measure, some kind of “recovery”. SWMBO has noticed, on the occasions she has returned to visit some of her favourite charges, that when Fred has visitors he is much more animated and when he has not had a visitor for some time he seems to revert to a more vegetative state.
What we would like to establish is how can we, or some other agency, get this chap out and about. Even getting them to wheel him around the garden once a week would be a start!
Can anyone point us in the right direction?
Some while ago SWMBO worked at a certain nursing home. In this home, along with its usual clientele, there lives a younger chap, let’s call him Fred, who is there because of a fairly serious motorbike crash that has left him both physically damaged and brain damaged.
Fred is unable to walk or do anything to care for himself and his speech is limited to “yes” and “no”. He spends a fair amount of time in his bed but they do get him up into his chair for some of the day so that he can watch TV. He doesn’t seem to get a lot of visitors and SWMBO likens him to the gorilla on the island at Longleat House, plenty of people passing by but in reality he only has the TV for company.
SWMBO appreciates that he is brain damaged but believes, because he can at least say a couple of words and because of the way he has responded to things she and other people have said to him, that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with comprehending people – more that his brain damage gives him a problem communicating with them. She is firmly of the opinion that with some appropriate therapy, his communication skills could be significantly improved.
When SWMBO started working at the place his responses to people were fairly limited. At this stage Fred had been in the home for somewhere around seven years. Through studying him and making an effort to communicate with him, which was copied to some extent by others there, he became a more lively and responsive person in a matter of weeks.
Because of his circumstances we are making the assumption that his surviving parent is his “legal guardian”. However this parent is themselves infirm and cannot visit Fred as often as we would assume they would like to. Fred would of course, again we assume, be classed as a vulnerable adult.
The nub of our concern is that Fred has, to our knowledge, only been out of the home on one occasion in the 7+ years that he has been there. He spends the vast majority of his time in his room and only very occasionally gets brought downstairs amongst the other residents. To our knowledge they don’t even wheel him round the gardens to give the poor chap some fresh air.
We feel that increasing his contact with other people will improve not only his spirits but will further stimulate his brain and thus possibly aid, if only in a small measure, some kind of “recovery”. SWMBO has noticed, on the occasions she has returned to visit some of her favourite charges, that when Fred has visitors he is much more animated and when he has not had a visitor for some time he seems to revert to a more vegetative state.
What we would like to establish is how can we, or some other agency, get this chap out and about. Even getting them to wheel him around the garden once a week would be a start!
Can anyone point us in the right direction?
Essentially, people in nursing homes have no rights at all.
What you describe is normal - I was in one with a 'young adults unit' for 9 months, might even be the same one although I hope to God not for the bloke's sake. Until I got a powerchair about 3 months in I only ever left the building when on a stretcher on the way into an ambulance. After I had the powerchair, I was the only one in the entire stinking place who ever got out of there other than to be taken to hospital, bar a couple of once-yearly visits to take Grandma out by families. A couple of the residents got regular visitors (who nontheless never seemed to take them out?!) the vast majority didn't.
None of the elderly folk in that place ever, EVER got to feel the sun on their skin. Not once, not at all.
It'd be kinder to just stick a pillow over their face and be done with it.
Your best option would be to contact the local authority and try and get hold of his social worker, or ask for the duty social worker if they deny all knowledge of him (sometimes they just dump your file in a corner once you've been 'inside' for a while - staff changes etc and nobody bothers to keep you on the books properly). I'd also be looking at whether you could possibly get hold of the parent, if it can be done without breaking 15 different Data Protection laws and getting your arse kicked by a huffy nursing home manager.
It is very likely that this lad's best chance will be to move into some kind of supported/assisted living facility, or better yet (with proper advocacy) to be set up for actual independent living, maybe sharing a flat/bungalow with one or two other guys with similar needs.
What you describe is normal - I was in one with a 'young adults unit' for 9 months, might even be the same one although I hope to God not for the bloke's sake. Until I got a powerchair about 3 months in I only ever left the building when on a stretcher on the way into an ambulance. After I had the powerchair, I was the only one in the entire stinking place who ever got out of there other than to be taken to hospital, bar a couple of once-yearly visits to take Grandma out by families. A couple of the residents got regular visitors (who nontheless never seemed to take them out?!) the vast majority didn't.
None of the elderly folk in that place ever, EVER got to feel the sun on their skin. Not once, not at all.
It'd be kinder to just stick a pillow over their face and be done with it.
Your best option would be to contact the local authority and try and get hold of his social worker, or ask for the duty social worker if they deny all knowledge of him (sometimes they just dump your file in a corner once you've been 'inside' for a while - staff changes etc and nobody bothers to keep you on the books properly). I'd also be looking at whether you could possibly get hold of the parent, if it can be done without breaking 15 different Data Protection laws and getting your arse kicked by a huffy nursing home manager.
It is very likely that this lad's best chance will be to move into some kind of supported/assisted living facility, or better yet (with proper advocacy) to be set up for actual independent living, maybe sharing a flat/bungalow with one or two other guys with similar needs.
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