hospice

LisaLH

My dad is in memory care. I'm not sure the stage. He is totally incontinent but eats well, will answer a basic question if its a few words but does have "word salad" when he tries to say more than a few words. He usually only remembers his mom and dad and thinks they are still alive. My questions….since he is in memory care who decides if hospice is needed? Does it sound like he is there yet?

harshedbuzz

@LisaLH

It's hard to say. If this is a MCF that allows a resident to age-in-place, sometimes the facility will encourage families to bring on hospice, in lieu of hiring private pay aides, to lighten their load as the resident's care needs increase and begin to impact others.

In my situation, I brought dad's weight loss (despite eating well) to the attention of the DON (dad had only been in MC for less than 2 months, so the loss didn't look as dramatic to him as it did to me). We agreed to do a swallowing eval and hospice eval. Dad died the night before his hospice evaluation.

It wouldn't hurt to ask the facility their thoughts. They may have a list of preferred providers. There's no harm in having an evaluation.

HB

Emily 123

Hi,

Agree with HB. Hospice is provided by private companies, so you can ask several to come in and have them assess your dad to see if he's a good candidate, talk with them about what they can offer, and choose the one you like best. There's a lot of info here about hospice—use the word search function via the magnifying glass on the upper right of the page.