How can I keep my mom from falling when she gets up during the night?

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How can I keep my mom from falling when she gets up during the night?

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My mother has vascular dimentia. I've lived with her for 2 years now at her house and have made many changes for her safety and convenience. My bedroom is right beside hers. Recently when she gets up during the night she falls and can't get up. We've been lucky she hasn't been hurt. The only resolution I've come up with is to get her a bed with rails but then she can't get to the bathroom during the night. Does anyone have suggestions on another way to deal with this?

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If she wears protective underwear, tell her to call you for assistance. Then, proceed to safely have her sit up and then stand. Be sure when she sits up, her feet can touch the floor while sitting securely on the bed*. Move to a standing position, 3 deep breaths, and move to the bathroom using a cane, rollator, or walker.

*Some beds have a ‘soft’ edge. The person can slide off this edge unintentionally!

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Reply to DianeNina114

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This was happening with my mother, as her dementia advanced. She'd fall softly and wouldn't hurt herself, yet falls are not good and should be avoided. My mother was living in a memory care facility. They ordered a hospital bed for her that you could raise and lower and had bars. Medicare paid for it and took it back after her death (after years of use). They put her in incontinence underwear with incontinence pads between her and the sheets. She had to be cleaned in the morning. You can also try having a portable potty next to her bed, but she may not be able to maneuver to it. My aunt's caregiver gave her a bell to ring when she had to go to the bathroom, but my aunt didn't use it. If your mother is still capable of strength exercises, this is a good thing to do. But if her dementia is advancing, she may not be capable of learning new things. Muscle weakness is a sign of advancing dementia. My mother eventually 'forgot' how to walk and although she was only 90 lbs. she needed 2 aides to transfer her from the bed to a wheel chair. (The nurse at her memory care also ordered the wheel chair through Medicare). My mother had to be in a wheel chair to move around for the rest of her life. Consider getting an aide to sit in her room at night so you can sleep. Much will depend on her finances. Contact your state's Department of Aging to find out what your options are.

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Reply to NancyIS

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Tips4Gen: Use a bedside commode IF she is getting up for this need.

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Reply to Llamalover47

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Falls are not always from tripping over something or poor visibility. Muscle weakness can make legs buckle when someone tries to stand up. PT and exercise might help maintain better muscle tone, but it may be difficult to get someone frail and in decline to do much useful exercise. Maybe a bedpad alarm system would work for you so that if your mother stirs or sits up in the night because she needs to get up, the alarm would wake you up and you could go help assist her to the bathroom. That's going to involve interrupting your own sleep, but that is usually the course of caretaking at home.

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Reply to RedVanAnnie

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Bedside potty chairs will tump over if you lean on one side when getting on or off. Push it against a wall and then the other side against the bed firmly. Make sure it's not too hi or too low. Put handrails on toilet also. A bidet will (don't cost much) clean BM off her bottom and help prevent UTI's.

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Reply to anna739

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I now sleep on the other side of my Mom on her Queen size bed at night. This way when she stirs to get up to go to the bathroom, I can be right there making sure she doesn't fall. This works for me.

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Reply to sford01071

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My mom does not have dementia but she also fell in the night on her way back from the bathroom a few days ago. (Second time in 3 months). Like your mom, she did not injure herself, but she could not get back off the floor unaided. I do not live with her but live 3 miles down the road.

My mom already wears Depends in case of leaks which I guess are frequent. But she doesn’t like to just use that if she feels the urge to go. I suggested a bedside commode — she flat out refused.

I asked her what did she trip over — she had no idea. I added more nightlights and removed the rug and a small table that were in the path to the bathroom. Adding more grab bars is another option.

I asked her why she doesn’t leave her phone and glasses by her bed. (Long explanation that I do not find convincing)

I asked her why she doesn’t take her walker to the bathroom. It fits through the door, but she finds it hard to navigate with it in there as it is a bit crowded. So I asked her why doesn’t she at least take her cane to the bathroom. No good answer. Just “I don’t really need it for just a few steps.” Umm…. Yes, clearly, you do.

I suggested in -home physical therapy and sent her links to two local places that offer this specifically to enhance balance and walking mobility and strength to get back up off the floor for seniors. She said she would think about it and maybe try the 2-lb hand weights I gave her a year or more ago instead.

I had previously gotten her a medical alert system (pendant and emergency button) but she refused to wear it after about two months because she kept setting it off by accident.

We also discussed putting more small flashlights everywhere and getting a landline phone with big light-up buttons so she could at least see well enough to call 911. And we discussed getting a better lockbox for the spare key for if/when she does call 911 in the middle of the night.

And I mentioned Alexa…. She is totally opposed.

I pointed out that the other options are live-in aides or assisted living. And that if she keeps falling, sooner or later she WILL injure herself, which will lead to the same outcomes, with hospitalization and rehab in between. Which no one enjoys.

pS I agree with others who say bedrails are no longer recommended. I asked about this when my father was in residential hospice and they said that People with dementia (like my dad) try to climb over them and hurt themselves. So bed on the floor (as others have said) is safer. I’m guessing your mom could not get down to the floor to sleep there or get up on her own from there either.

Good luck!! There really are no good solutions. When my dad fell a lot, it could happen even with an aide standing right next to him. I don’t think there are foolproof solutions.

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Reply to Suzy23

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Great comment. And you're right there's no perfect solution because everybody's different and putting a mattress on the floor for them to sleep on then they can't get up which could be a good thing ......in some instances. When they have dementia they pretty much oppose everything. They cannot be reasoned with so you have to do what you've got to do which may mean trying different things and see which one works the best because nothing is going to work perfectly. Even the pure Wick... the husband was taking care of the wife who was using one of those and he kept messing with it and it made as much of a mess as it was without it! They kept saying it was the machine but it was not the machine. He would turn her in the middle of the night and displace it not realizing what he was doing and even sometimes he would turn the machine off not realizing it.

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Bed rails are illegal in nursing homes in my state due to choking risk. (Client rolls into the bedrail, chokes, and can't move and dies.) Many states are adopting this. My state is an industry leader in protecting seniors.

The new technique is putting the mattress on the floor or getting a bed that drops to the floor and then put a gym pad on the floor next to the bed.

Amazon sells some beds that drop to the floor.

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Reply to brandee

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There was a patient I had and I wanted to sleep in the same bedroom with him which could be easily done but the wife would not allow it. She was 94 years old and he was 90 something. She insisted on keeping the bedrails up, no amount of talking could dissuade her and he crawled out of bed one night over a bed rail of course and fell, hit his head, ended up in the hospital. I was behind her in my car following her who was following the ambulance and she's going down the wrong side of the streets!!!! Of course I didn't follow her doing that!! It was early in the morning and no one stopped her. She would not listen to anyone and it was her husband that was the patient.

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Put a bedside commode right next to her bed so she doesn't have to travel far to use the bathroom.
And of course having her wear Depends overnight would solve the issue as well.

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Reply to funkygrandma59

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How can I keep my mom from falling when she gets up during the night?

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