Memory care facilities(3)

Lizzielou

I am researching and touring memory care facilities and want to know if smelling bad is a red flag.  I understand it would be difficult to keep up with all the incontinent people there but is it a sign of understaffing?

Pathfinder52

Not sure where you live, but UNDERSTAFFING is the new pandemic.

Here, in this state (Minnesota) alone, there are 40,000 open positions in long-term care. Home care is feeling the same pressure and finding new employees who want to be in the human service industry (yes, it's an industry) for $15/hour is very, very difficult.

Wishing you all the best finding a memory care unit that can serve your needs. It can be discouraging, especially now, to find an adequately staffed facility where you believe your loved-one's needs can be met.

Looking among smaller facilities might be a good strategy -- sometimes they pay better and sometimes, working in more of a family setting (smaller, group-home) is a way of retaining qualified staff.

It is a very challenging time to be searching for care! 

Hope your search brings you what you're looking for!

--p

Joe C.

That would be a red flag for me! The MCF my DW is in does a very good job controlling odor and I am quite sure all the residents there are at some stage of incontinence.

toolbeltexpert

LL it could be a sign or you just caught them at a bad moment.  I have caught the bad smell at one time or another. Sometimes things happen. How quickly they deal with it is just as important. Not dealing with it is Bad.

Stewart 

Ed1937

I think it could be a one time thing, or it could be the norm for that place. I'd visit again, maybe a few times to see if the facility smells cleaner, as long as other concerns seem to be good. But I will say that when my wife was in MC, like Joe, I never smelled anything like that.

Marie58

Yes, it's a red flag if it's an ongoing issue. Not if it's a one time thing.

jfkoc

You are not paying for "understaffed". Red flag.....run away.

dw743

Agree that the "smell test" is a game changer.  I made several trips to the MC unit prior to placing DW. During the year she was there, it continued to pass the smell check. Watched the staff take great care to change out the patient quickly as possible, when they soiled themselves. They would bag up everything and remove it from the rooms.  

mommafour

My daughter is a Director of a Memory Care facility. She and I went to visit my mother in a different rehab / skilled nursing care facility that smelled very bad as soon as we walked in the door. I remember her telling me that was a huge red flag.