Within the past month she has become aggressive and violent with her aides and other residents. At the request of the facility, we have hired a 1-to-1 aide, until they can find a space for her in a psychiatric unit, where she will receive acute care that the Memory Care facility cannot provide. Has this happened to anyone else, and are there any other options other than a psychiatric hospital?
Once mom got under hospice care, the RN was able to increase her dose of Ativan to a higher one and on a more frequent basis which did help her quite a bit. She was also taking Ativan before hospice came on board due to aggressive behavior due to Sundowning in the afternoons. She wasn't violent beforehand, however, that should be noted. Is your mom thought to be approaching the end of her life where hospice could be appropriate? What about her regular doctor, has s/he tried various calming meds (or any meds) to control this aggressive behavior as yet? To jump straight to a psychiatric hospital and a 1-to-1 aide (at huge expense) w/o first trying some basic sedative type meds like Ativan FIRST is odd to me. Unless that has been tried with no luck.
Any doctor who's familiar at ALL with dementia and comes into a Memory Care facility should be well versed with residents who act out aggressively once their dementia progresses. It's not like your mother is the first and only resident who's ever done such a thing. Once standard UTI testing and blood tests are done to eliminate organic issues being at the root of her behavior, then all that's left is to consider medication to calm her down.
If this were my mother (which it easily COULD HAVE BEEN) in her Memory Care ALF, I would speak with her doctor right away about getting her on calming meds or anti psychotic meds that are commonly used with dementia such as Seroquel, to see if they'd help her calm down a bit. I was in constant contact with my mother's medical pros to make sure they were all doing all that COULD have been done for her, to keep her calm and in decent overall health while she was in Memory Care for just under 3 years. She had A LOT of different issues that needed to be addressed, almost constantly, and fortunately, her medical team listened to what I had to say and took my recommendations on a lot of matters. Like when she was vomiting constantly & I asked them to switch her to Prilosec 2x a day, that did the trick & stopped the vomiting.
Wishing you the best of luck with all that's going on. I hope you can find a good resolution w/o having to have mom go into a psychiatric hospital. But if she does, it will likely prove beneficial in the long run.
'At the request of the facility, we have hired a 1-to-1 aide,'
See what her response is to that. Are you still able to talk with your Mom at all? Can you ask your Mom what is going on with her? Someone else mentioned checking for a UTI, good idea, as well as any other like condition. Unfortunately, these places can get busy with many problems, and their 'go to' is sometimes measures that work best for running the facility, as much or more than the specific needs of the resident. You have to bring your own judgement to the situation, you can't just delegate and be confident they'll 'get it', because they have more experience.
Ask the social worker in her present facility to recommend a referral for their psychiatrist or prescribing psychologist to do a work up where she is now.
It’s possible that with appropriate medication, your mother may be able to remain where she is now.
My LO was both aggressive and physically violent when she entered residential care, “our” facility was serviced by an excellent psychiatric practice.
She was prescribed a carefully chosen dose of medications that were matched to her age, symptoms, and body size, and also received “visits” from a gentle and persuasive psychiatrist from the practice, and within a couple mo ths, began to enjoy and benefit from her surroundings.
Painful for us and for her at first, but ultimately a good resolution. Hoping you and your mom will find the same.