Most NHs have patients in Hospital beds which have side rails that can be raised. She needs to be in a bed with rails on the sides so that she doesn't roll out.
Is she rolling out of bed or climbing over the rails? It makes a difference. If she's climbing out, I would agree that mattress on the floor might be the only solution unless she can be medicated to sleep through the night. Does she have very advanced dementia? Is she on Hospice care? Is she coming close to the end, and is this caused by agitation? I'd use medication to keep her from being agitated; it can't be easy to be frightened like that.
Why is she falling out of bed? Is she trying to get out of it? Is she rolling off the edge?
The nursing home's probably got the best solutions. I can hardly imagine any of us being able to think of something they haven't. But...after she's in bed, put the bed in the lowest possible position, and put one (even two) mattresses on the floor. Or perhaps by raising the foot of the bed and raising the head, you'll foil her attempts to get up on her own, depending on how strong she is. Perhaps putting one side of the bed against the wall will deter her. Move all furniture away from the bed so she can't use it to help herself up. If you can position her so her knees are higher than her hips and she has nothing to lean on, I'd think that would keep her in bed . . .
Still, someone determined? They're going to end up on the floor. So, the mattress is a great idea as it will cushion her fall.
is it legal to put the mattress on the floor? she is 97 and keeps getting out? i ihave never heard of this it would be hard for a woman of this advanced age to get up or down as well as the nursing staff care i was a cna and lpn in this place and never heard of this
I just posted this answer in another question, it seems to fit here too: Hi there, I recently had to deal with this topic. My mother had started having falls which included rolling out of bed. Her bed is fairly low, and we recently took the oriental rugs out of her Assisted Living room to try to make a safer environment for her. One afternoon about 2 weeks ago, I got a call from the director of nursing talking about a mattress on the floor. She had me call SunCare (a medical supply store in central Florida) to order one for her. It was the best thing we ever did. The mattress is about 5 inches thick..a bit smaller than a twin mattress (it easily slides under her double bed during the day when she isn't in it), and the material is accident/liquid proof. It reminds me of a gymnast mat but thicker.
In New Hampshire, they can not use a hospital bed with full rails because that is considered a "restraint" and a violation of patient care in most facilities. My mom wanted a full rail but was told she could not have them. ;-( Putting one side next to wall is a good idea as long as bed does not move. Mattress on floor sounds good unless getting up and down is a problem. like the idea of mattress that slides under bed. Could that be used to cushion a tumble out of bed? Mattress on floor is better than broken hip or arm. Hope you find a good solution.
The mattress on the floor and a lower bed is an excellent non-restraint type of solution. Hip protectors that you wear are a possible consideration though the evidence suggests that "routine" use does not reduce fracture incidence. There are also bed alarms but frankly by the time a person gets up and you hear the alarm they might be on the floor. If a person can operate their own bed rails they shoudl not be considered a "restraint" and should be legal, but getting HIPAA and PLTC phobic people to think through that may be a challenge.
Frankly, I've NEVER heard of this solution and I've worked in many nursing homes. I'm guessing they are understaffed and unable to monitor her properly. If she is able to fall or get out bed, she may be also be wandering. I'd look for another nursing home.
Olma - you've never seen even a gym-mat on the floor next to a bed? I think that's pretty common and pretty reasonable. Some folks don't sleep well, and particularly at night forget to ask for help to get out of bed, and unless you can get them a 24 hour sitter there is no reasonable way to supervise them enough to prevent a mishap.
"unless you can get them a 24 hour sitter there is no reasonable way to supervise them enough to prevent a mishap" I so agree, vstefans! Same goes during the day, but it is probably worse at night. Dementia makes keeping someone safe harder!
They use a gym-mat type pad and crank my mother's bed way down low. And I would not object if they wanted to put her mattress on the floor, but it is really easier for them with an adjustable height bed so they can have her at a reasonable level to change her and dress her.
Looking for a different facility is all well and good, but how can you be certain the new place won't be understaffed next month, or will be as creative in problem-solving?
I have to wonder, while it is safer for someone to fall from a bed onto a gymnast-type of mattress, what about if they try to get out of bed the "normal" way swinging their legs around, and then they try to walk on that squisky gymnast-matt, isn't that going to make them dizzy and unstable, especially when it is dark at night? What a tough situation. Hope I never have to live like this (but genetics suggest I could go to 100 easily).
My Dad has dementia, he is in a very understaffed facility. Unfortunately his POA Agent (long story, "Friend" 20 years younger who ingratiated himself onto all of my Dad's documents, unbeknownst to us, Elder Abuse Predator) won't let my Dad move anywhere else. We, the daughters, are not allowed to "Interfere" as the Agent calls it, apparently caring and advocating for your parent is "Interfering." Anyway, he is crippled (he was walking 6 months ago when they locked him up there, but Agent wont allow him to have PT, criminal) but he will crawl out of bed. So they put his mattress on the floor. But its really thin and I hate that it has no support at all. He is 86, frail. They put the gym mat next to his bed, but since he can't stand up it doesn't matter that it's squishy, as Samara said above, but if he could stand up it would be dangerous. He hates it and always tells us to move it into the corner. I wish they would just give him a low bed, that can go up and down for Wheelchair transfers. Then the mat would make more sense. If he had a low bed, I doubt he would hurt himself crawling out of bed. I hate the way he is treated there, it's like he has nothing and they are just waiting for him to die.
Riley90, does his POA have Medical POA as well? Financial POA has nothing to say about where person can live. Does you Dad want to move? He has dementia, but does he still understand the concept of POA? Does he want to keep this guy?
The guy is both POA mental and health, total and complete nightmare. My Dad did want to change the POA when we talked to him about it, but when the facility manager found out we were there and talking to my dad about it, he told the doctor they'd slap a lawsuit on her if she did the witnessing on the change, so she backed out, and we didn't have anyone else to witness it. At the time he had enough where-with-all, but he had been diagnosed with dementia, my dad's lawyer balked at us and said there's no way anyone would honor it. The lawyer, consequently, was the guy who advised my dad to put this Agent "friend" on his POA, and this a Agent had only known my dad for 4 years. What lawyer does that? He ought to be disbarred. Now my Dad is too far gone, doesn't understand at all what is going on. He also tried to fire his lawyer around the same time he wanted us to be the POA, but the guy wouldn't go away, we also have a voice message he left my sister telling her to find him a replacement lawyer that he wanted to fire his present one. He was totally lucid at the time, speaking clearly and he was obviously disturbed about the lawyer, who had just "dropped by" un-invited on my father's dime, to talk to my dad at the hospital. He was already locked up, no way to find himself a lawyer by himself. He always called my sister and me when he needed something done. But since we are not the POA, (we are the 1st and 2nd Alternates on both POAs) we couldn't fire the lawyer, who is a crooked as they come. It's like living in the Twilight Zone, or being stuck in a nightmare you can't wake up from, having to deal with these 2 psychopaths.
By the way, my dad is/was being kept there against his will, and he kept trying to escape. But they wouldn't let him leave. He wanted to go home, or at least get out of that hospital. But POA blocked us from getting any information about our dad, so we couldn't do anything to help him, he forbid everyone to talk to us if we called. My Dad would just call us begging us to get him out of there. It's been totally heartbreaking, we want to help him but this F-ing POA document doesn't have any guidelines for ethical behavior, POAs can do whatever they want, no matter how immoral or wrong, but they can get away with it because it's a legal document. I hate the POA as a document it gives too much room for psychos to take over someone's life when they can no longer take care of themselves. This whole thing has practically destroyed our lives. Now he's so debilitated that he can't escape, he crippled now, he was walking when he went in there 6 months ago. This whole thing is criminal.
If you suspect Elder Abuse, and you are the children, you have every right, and a moral duty, to report the situation to Adult Protective Services. Have you done this, yet?
Someone in our family reported it to APS recently because everyone in our extended family is concerned bc on a recent visit we found other neglect ie, his teeth were all corroded and gunked up, they hadn't been taken care of in over 4 months. Since we weren't allowed to visit bc of legal battle with the POA, until we got an attorney, otherwise we would have caught it sooner. Anyway we reported it to our attorney, and the facility just made a bunch of excuses. Also the carpet smells like urine, and my dad is lying on the floor right there in that smell, and they said in their report back to the attorney, the carpet is fine and doesnt smell! Except it DOES bc I have to sit on it to talk to my dad who is on the floor and it wreaks! (He is not incontinent, it is not from him and it's disgusting). After the report full of excuses, a family member called APS. It is hard to find out what the results of the investigation are, it takes 30 days to receive the report once its been requested. Another thing that is just wrong is that when the CNAs go to pick him up off the mattress for transfer, they step on his bed in their shoes. Maybe time to call the health dept. too. I know some people here on this thread have said they would be okay with the mattress on the floor, but I think it's less than ideal, especially with tranfers. A hydrolic bed would be way better, and one that can go very low so he doesnt get hurt crawling out of bed. He doesn't understand what his call medallion is even for, so he has no way to call a nurse. Our experience when we were there was that it didnt matter of you used the wall call button or the medallion, they only answered 20% of the time, and even if they answer, it took at least 15 mins for them to get to the room. Half the time I run around the facility to find someone after the call buttons got no answer while dad is waiting to go to the bathroom. After a while we just started transferring him ourselves, then got scolded by the nurses when they finally arrived. And this place claims to have 5 stars. If I didn't live in another state I would be there with him everyday.
I visited a friend in a nursing home recently. Her bed was on the floor. A small one liked described above. She said she had fallen so often it was safer for her. She had an attendant with her. She used her wheelchair to get up from the floor and sat in it and visited and seemed happy with the whole arrangement. She said getting in and out of the wheelchair was her therapy.
Pixieish13, my Mom has the same issue where she is staying, in her mind she still thinks she can walk but in reality she can no longer even stand.
What the facility did was put bumper guards around the bed, lowered the bed, and have rubber fall mats on both sides of the bed. These mats are soft but not like gym mats. In fact one can move a wheelchair over them without any problem.
It's really interesting that babies and toddlers are required to be contained in cribs and carseats, for their own safety, and parents/ daycare would be arrested if they did not prevent them from falling out of bed, or crawling around the car. But an incapacitated adult, oh no, we can't put them in a bed with bedrails, or a set belt on their chair, that's not right. There has to be a middle ground, some room for interpretation of the circumstances. Seniors who cannot walk, but forget they cannot, could cause themselves great harm or death if the caregivers don't prevent them from getting out of bed/ chair. Personally I think restraints are just fine. But because of misuse by a few unscrupulous carers, now the seniors that really really need them have to do without, or their carers go thru massive red tape to get simple bed rails or seat belt approved.
Excellent point, Mallory. I wish the long term care would use some type of seatbelt in a wheelchair for my Mom, as she tends to bend over to try to pick something up off the floor, and there she tumbles. Instead, Mom is now in a Geri Recliner which I know is very uncomfortable for her, she keeps saying her back hurts.
Someone reported this situation with my father being on the floor to APS, and I was informed, soon after their visit, that magically, the facility will be giving my father a hydrolic bed, even though they have been adamant all along that he must remain on the floor. Maybe APS had a different opinion about it. We won't know since we didn't file the report, but the timing is interesting.
Riley, you can contest POA in court. You can petition for guardianship which will cancel out all other POAs. This will force that guy to show up and put his own case together to contest it. He will need to prove that he's visiting and at care conferences, in contact with the facility, making care decisions, etc.
Take lots of pictures and document, document, document.
The nursing home's probably got the best solutions. I can hardly imagine any of us being able to think of something they haven't. But...after she's in bed, put the bed in the lowest possible position, and put one (even two) mattresses on the floor. Or perhaps by raising the foot of the bed and raising the head, you'll foil her attempts to get up on her own, depending on how strong she is. Perhaps putting one side of the bed against the wall will deter her. Move all furniture away from the bed so she can't use it to help herself up. If you can position her so her knees are higher than her hips and she has nothing to lean on, I'd think that would keep her in bed . . .
Still, someone determined? They're going to end up on the floor. So, the mattress is a great idea as it will cushion her fall.
Hi there, I recently had to deal with this topic. My mother had started having falls which included rolling out of bed. Her bed is fairly low, and we recently took the oriental rugs out of her Assisted Living room to try to make a safer environment for her. One afternoon about 2 weeks ago, I got a call from the director of nursing talking about a mattress on the floor. She had me call SunCare (a medical supply store in central Florida) to order one for her. It was the best thing we ever did. The mattress is about 5 inches thick..a bit smaller than a twin mattress (it easily slides under her double bed during the day when she isn't in it), and the material is accident/liquid proof. It reminds me of a gymnast mat but thicker.
Putting one side next to wall is a good idea as long as bed does not move. Mattress on floor sounds good unless getting up and down is a problem. like the idea of mattress that slides under bed. Could that be used to cushion a tumble out of bed?
Mattress on floor is better than broken hip or arm.
Hope you find a good solution.
I'm guessing they are understaffed and unable to monitor her properly.
If she is able to fall or get out bed, she may be also be wandering.
I'd look for another nursing home.
They use a gym-mat type pad and crank my mother's bed way down low. And I would not object if they wanted to put her mattress on the floor, but it is really easier for them with an adjustable height bed so they can have her at a reasonable level to change her and dress her.
Looking for a different facility is all well and good, but how can you be certain the new place won't be understaffed next month, or will be as creative in problem-solving?
What the facility did was put bumper guards around the bed, lowered the bed, and have rubber fall mats on both sides of the bed. These mats are soft but not like gym mats. In fact one can move a wheelchair over them without any problem.
There has to be a middle ground, some room for interpretation of the circumstances. Seniors who cannot walk, but forget they cannot, could cause themselves great harm or death if the caregivers don't prevent them from getting out of bed/ chair. Personally I think restraints are just fine. But because of misuse by a few unscrupulous carers, now the seniors that really really need them have to do without, or their carers go thru massive red tape to get simple bed rails or seat belt approved.
Take lots of pictures and document, document, document.