Tuesday, August 24, 2010

It's A Wonderful Day For A Ride

Some places are more sophisticated in how they deal with folks with dementia "escaping" the facility. I toured a couple that have these residents on a separate floor accessible by a password-controlled elevator.

At my Mom's place, where there is a mix of dementia and non-dementia residents, those that need to be monitored have a bracelet on their right wrist that sets off alarms at all the exits. Most of the time, when they leave, they don't get very far before someone on the staff responds to the alarm and reels them in.

A new resident, though, is fast on her feet. She's relatively young at 69 and is constantly on the go, pacing the halls and rummaging from room to room.

I heard that she'd gone out the front door and took a dump on the bench out front before she'd been apprehended.

On Sunday, while my brother was visiting, there was another kerfuffle. As my brother was preparing to leave, he heard the alarm sound. By the time he'd gotten out the door and in the parking lot, two attendants were pulling the aforementioned dumper from the passenger's seat of his Jeep!

There was no dump in the vehicle and he's decided to lock his doors from now on.

2 comments:

Mom said...

Life with someone with dementia is always an adventure. Your brother was lucky.

Greg said...

My heart was in my mouth at the end there - sounds like your Brother was lucky!