Wandering at Night in Memory Care

Russ W

My dad was recently moved to a memory care center.  He's wandered out of his room and into another patients' room/bed overnight twice already.  My mom and I are relatively certain it's just confusion about his surroundings/where his bed/room is, but the staff is suggesting he's lonely and misses sleeping next to my mom.  But that doesn't make sense because how would he even know where to find another bed with a person in it?  They're asking us for mitigation suggestions, like my mom providing them a door sensor I had previously installed in her apartment, and a "bed buddy" (full body pillow?).

The facility has 17 residents and 3 night staff.  The rooms are on two wings that meet in the middle at the nurse's station.  The doors to the facility are locked/keypad operated so at least he can't leave.  He's wearing some sort of tracking device that is intended to track his motion but I don't know how specific it is.  I think it was intended to be temporary.  

My main question is: is it normal for a memory care facility to not notice a resident wandering out of their room at 4 am?  Are we expecting too much that they notice and help him find his bed?  And either way, what can we do about this?  This issue is one of the main reasons he's in memory care to begin with.  I see bed/door sensors designed for this purpose on Amazon and I could literally buy and install them, and an alarm panel at the nurse's station for not too much money.  But it seems weird to me that they aren't already equipped to handle this.  

Any advice is appreciated.  Thanks.     

LaurenB

That's really interesting to read your dad's situation.  I would think that it could be their responsibility to look for his movements, but if they are attending to another resident's needs (taking them to the bathroom, cleaning up a mess, they might not notice that he has moved.  From working in skilled nursing facilities, the staff there don't walk the halls checking in on the residents at night.  I'm not sure that it is part of their job description.  I've seen residents climb into bed with other residents.  They might be looking for companionship, but the ones that i've noticed were just looking for a bed and had no idea that there was someone else already in the single bed.  "I'm tired, need a bed, I'll lay here."

As for the alarm system, do others have them at your dad's place?

loveskitties

Is your dad's wandering always around the same time of night?  If so, is he on any medication which might be "cycling down" about that time?

When he is found is he expressing being tired or is he thinking he needs to be up?

With my father, he had difficulty going to be at the facility's "usual time".  They let him stay up later in the gathering room and watch TV until he was ready.  That room was central to the areas where the staff would be able to check on him regularly.

zauberflote

My mom's MC did bed checks every couple of hours all night, and more frequently for residents in medical need or in their last days and bedbound. . Mom wandered very briefly the first few days she was there, and her last few weeks of life, when she couldn't sleep. They'd bring her in the common room then and sometimes sit with her in her room until she slept. I kind of think the night routine might be a state mandate here, not sure though. 

Several residents were frequent or even constant wanderers. Staff kept tabs on them, but as night staff was skeletal, I'm sure they had to roust people out of others' rooms from time to time. Mom's was the last room in her wing, so it was a natural dam for the flow of visitors. My complaint was, all these visitors had to shuffle through the space between the nurse station and common room, so back when the place was nearly fully staffed (and what a luxury that was, in hindsight!), why oh why did nobody notice the man from the other wing turning down that hallway! He should have been seen at the front desk for starters, and then our nurse station. 

harshedbuzz

It's really hard to say.

Dad's MCF had a skeleton staff 11-7am. They went down to 2 people for 3 halls; the parent company had a SNF on the other side of the parking lot from which they could pull in help in an emergency. Bed checks were done every 2 hours and a lot of paperwork was done in the overnights.

I could see where a resident could wander and go unnoticed between checks especially if the aides were assisting another resident or if the PWD didn't wander past them. 

I don't know that this means they can't "handle" a wanderer-- especially as the PWD is still adjusting to a new place, caregivers and routines. I also don't think asking for family input is a bad thing. IME, the best facilities are the ones that engage families as part of the team.

HB

Russ W

LaurenB wrote:

As for the alarm system, do others have them at your dad's place?

Thanks for the reply.  I don't know.  They mentioned they would install one, then asked my mom if she could bring the one she was using at her place.  

Russ W

harshedbuzz wrote:

I don't know that this means they can't "handle" a wanderer-- especially as the PWD is still adjusting to a new place, caregivers and routines. 

 

Thanks for the response.

I just mean that out of the gate, they have been unable to prevent it twice.  I didn't expect this much of a learning curve or even would have expected maximum vigilance at the start.  But this is new to me, so I'm just speculating.  

I also don't think asking for family input is a bad thing. IME, the best facilities are the ones that engage families as part of the team.

 

Yes, of course family engagement is good, especially as they are getting to know him, we are the experts on him.  But they are the experts on memory care centers/practices.  It just seems odd that they would ask us to bring them technology (a door sensor) when I would expect them to be equipped with whatever they need.  

Getting in bed with another person seems like it would be a serious problem to me.  There's an abuse risk/perception.  

harshedbuzz

Russ W wrote:

harshedbuzz wrote:

 

  It just seems odd that they would ask us to bring them technology (a door sensor) when I would expect them to be equipped with whatever they need.  

I guess this doesn't seem odd to me. If your dad is unphased by the sensor you used at home-- and you no longer have a need for it there-- it doesn't seem a strange ask in a smaller setting given costs. 

Getting in bed with another person seems like it would be a serious problem to me.  There's an abuse risk/perception.  

The above happens sometimes. IME with dad was more often during the day if he were out of his room which was the first door off the center hub of the building. It did happen once with my auntie when a resident thought they were married. They developed a close relationship over the years and died within days of one another. I won't say we were happy about this, but it's one of the realities of life in a MCF along with shoppers and random visitors.

In my state, MCFs are required to have locking doors. When residents are down for the night, doors are locked which prevents wanderers entering rooms. Is this not the case where your dad is?

HB

PS Thinking back to the suggestion of a body pillow: they may be on to something. Dad had Pillow-Pet of his favorite football team he slept with and cuddled after he went into MC.