Last summer, we spent a considerable amount of time visiting various universities for Caden, our middle son. Walking around the campuses, hearing the students share why they liked their school, and watching promotional videos included these day long visits. In the end, he chose Purdue and will begin classes in a few weeks.
My mother cannot move back to her condo or the connected organization because of her dementia so tomorrow we will be researching a different type of facility– a nursing home with a memory care unit. Will residents share their experiences? Will promotional videos be shown and freebies be given out? Will huge groups of people touring?? It’s doubtful.
Our day will include visiting three different facilities all with one goal in mind- provide the best care of my mother with dementia, a broken bone, and a fragile skeleton of a body that seems like it could wither away in a second.
What should we look for in these facilities? What questions should we ask?
As with any major decision, we have to organize our thoughts and come with a list of questions so we can carefully evaluate each facility at the end. But what questions?
My only experience with nursing homes is when I take a group of third graders to sing at the local nursing home in Lafayette. Making sure they sing songs instead of goof around and hope they don’t get scared of the residents is my only focus.
Thankfully, my sister-in-law, a registered nurse, will also be joining us. Her insight will provide the needed answers.
The journey continues.
A Journey Worth Remembering 