Flu shot in Memory Care? Yes or No? Thoughts?

My Mom never had one so I chose not to give her one. Flu shots are based on what strain they will think will show up. Last year or the year before a strain popped up that they didn't know about. Now the pneumonia that I had her dr. give after my Uncle died from it.

It was decided we would not give my mother a pneumonia shot last year (flu shots are/were mandatory at the ALF where she lived), and she came down with pneumonia. Tsk tsk, WHY did you NOT give her a pneumonia shot, everyone wondered, at the age of 92-1/2? So they hurried up and gave her one. She recuperated from pneumonia and had to be moved into Memory Care for increasing dementia & mobility issues/being wheelchair bound after her stint in rehab after hospitalization. Now she probably won't get pneumonia again, or the flu, and her life will wind up being extended even LONGER as a result, and that's the bottom line of all this 'medicine' being used to help our folks live to be 100. Oh, by the way, her money will be running out soon and I'll have to apply for Medicaid to get her placed into a Skilled Nursing Facility which she will probably hate even MORE than she hates Memory Care, but hey, she'll be alive and that seems to be everyone's goal. Life at ANY cost, even when there's no quality of it left to live. Dementia really sucks.
Use your own good judgment. For me, I will be taking NO life saving techniques if/when I am diagnosed with dementia. Who the heck wants to live like that?? Not me.

I do not support vaccinations for anyone. It makes me cringe to think of a person with dementia being injected with the chemicals in a vaccine. Vaccinations are not harmless and some would say not even helpful. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Based on the information I have read for several years, I am anti-vaccines.

Pneumonia used to be called 'the old man's friend' when it was not so easy to treat. It led to a quick death, which seemed like the best thing. Flu is probably on the same spectrum now. That's pretty much how you feel: 'Why prolong this awful dementia?'. Could you ask her, not just guess what she would say? If you decide against the flu shot, it will at least help you to know that she did actually turn it down herself.

Tough call.
If the majority of people that come into the facility have had a Flu shot then she would be sort of protected by what is called "Herd Immunity". But if many people do not have a flu shot then her risk of getting the flu increases.
And she is in an environment that is loaded with bacteria of all types. So flu is just a minor player along with Norovirus and Shingles not to mention staph and MRSA.
As an older person her immune system is compromised to begin with and living in a community she is exposed to more.
I guess the answer would be how healthy is she at this point? and could she survive a nasty bout of flu?
I feel like I am on a see saw with this answer but you know her best and if you feel that she would decline the flu shot then decline it.
I had my Husband get the flu shot when he was going to Adult Day Care and I continued when I kept him at home because I did not want to have to deal with a person with dementia that was having all the nasty results of the flu.

other bit of advice...always make the best decision you can and don't regret that decision with 20/20 hindsight.

I would say yes. At my mother's former AL the flu hit most of the residents en masse and the whole facility had to be quarantined and professionals brought in to clean and sterilize. Some residents were sent to the hospital with more severe symptoms. No visitors were allowed in for a period of time. All meals had to be served in residents rooms for a period of time. It was pretty major.

That’s a tough one because on one hand you know she would say no if she was fully competent. It would be her right to decline the shot and it would be on her if she picked up one of the flu strains the shot covers. But on the other hand, as POA its not only your job to make decisions as your mom would have but also to act in her best interest and it can be argued that getting her a flu shot is in her best interest.

Seems to be the answer is no. No flu shot. She wouldn’t consent to it if she could. And it only covers certain strains anyway. So I wouldn’t give her a flu shot. FWIW I get a flu shot every year so I’m not anti flu shot/anti vaccine.