Families seeking proper healthcare for Alzheimer’s patients can take advantage of any combination of numerous resources in the area.It is important to place loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s in a facility that best meets their unique needs, as was the case recently with the Rev. John Milton Green, who was removed from Sylacauga Health and Rehab for disruptive Alzheimer’s-related behavior only days after his admittance.
The Alzheimer’s Association encourages families to become familiar with the options available long before a patient’s condition has grown too advanced for home care. Green’s wife, Bobby Sue, said she has received a lot of material containing what she suspects is valuable information, but she has not had time to look it over since her husband’s condition worsened.
A support group sponsored by Citizens Baptist Medical Center in Talladega can help families anticipate what to expect and where to look for assistance when the time comes.
Planning ahead involves learning about the available care options, determining the best plan for meeting the needs of an individual with dementia, and finding the resources to cover the care costs.
Valerie Scoggins, executive director of Sylacauga Health and Rehab, said, “The first route for people with Alzheimer’s family members is to be in constant contact with a primary care physician, who will get them steered in the right direction, usually admitting the patient to a hospital.”
Green’s son Paul recommends the behavioral care unit at Coosa Valley Medical Center, which has a two-week program designed to assess and stabilize dementia patients before placing them in long-term care facilities.
Jillian Randall, a case manager for the 14-day senior care unit at Citizens Baptist Medical Center, said her unit has been staying full lately because people are now learning about the services the one-year-old program can provide, such as individualized care plans for patients, behavior management tactics and placement assistance for long-term care.
The AA gives three classifications for care settings: assisted living, nursing homes and Alzheimer special care units (SCUs). Assisted living facilities provide a sort of halfway point between living independently and living in a nursing home. Nursing homes provide long-term care to individuals who require ongoing nursing care and supervision. These facilities usually have staff to address issues like medical care, nutrition, recreation and spirituality.
Sometimes individualized treatment plans from the hospital care units may not be applicable to the larger, drastically different setting of a nursing home, Scoggins said, and adjustments need to be made. A spokesperson for an area nursing home that wished to remain unnamed said often patients will exhibit behaviors that are self-destructive or disruptive to other residents. In cases like that, the facility normally sends the patients to a hospital unit for stabilization before bringing them back to the nursing home.
But sometimes patients will find a certain type of care setting simply does not meet their particular needs, as in Green’s case. His son said they have been blessed by the behavioral clinic at Coosa Valley Medical Center, which is allowing Green to stay there until his family can find another home for him.
Enter Alzheimer’s SCUs, which can take many forms, often exist within other types of residential care and are designed to meet the needs of patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia. They are usually much smaller units, with an average of 10-16 beds, in order to reduce stimuli that could agitate an Alzheimer’s or dementia patient.
Long-term care facilities in the area that have Alzheimer’s SCUs include:
• Talladega Healthcare Center.
• Autumn Trace in Talladega.
• Coosa Valley Nursing Home in Sylacauga.
• Mountain View Lake Retirement Village in Sylacauga.
• The Village at Cook Springs.
They are also typically locked down to reduce elopement risk for patients prone to wander, a feature Bobby Sue Green said is important for patients like her husband.
Scoggins said the best option is to keep dementia patients at home as long as possible. For patients who get easily agitated, however, she recommends SCUs, but she warned there seems to be a shortage of them, and they normally have long waiting lists.
No matter what type of care setting you choose for your loved one, “you’ve got to have a place that has a passion for caring for people with Alzheimer’s,” said Bobby Sue Green.
The Alzheimer’s support group at Citizens Baptist Medical Center meets the second Saturday of each month, 10-11 a.m. on the ground floor in the cafeteria. Please call 256-761-4363 for more information.
For additional information that will help in selecting the proper care for your Alzheimer’s patients, visit:
www.alzheimers.org
www.alzbrain.org
www.alz.org/carefinder/index.asp
www.seniorhousingfinder.org
www.bhsala.com and visit the “Senior Living” page under “Programs and Services”
