She has orders for sugar free and low carb meals selected, but they are completely ignored. At every meal she is given sugar sweetened lemonade and tea and desserts and tons of carbs. Then the staff gives her a hard time for refusing to eat those items. I am having to pay out of pocket to buy her food that won't destroy her health further and I am already strapped. I'm guessing their food budget is tiny. I worked at a facility like this as a chef and the budget was $5.00 per resident per day for all meals combined not for each meal, but for all meals total. They gave me a menu designed by a dietitian I had to follow but the budget wasn't even enough to order what I needed to follow the menu. I left after 3 months. I don't understand why they would have standing orders where my mom is staying for nutrition if they are unable to meet them. Can anyone give me some advice?
Thank you.
My mother's nursing home gave her soups and other salty items when she was on a low-salt diet and had severe edema. Because she had dementia and was basically blind, she couldn't order from theiI put a sign on her door that said LOW SALT DIET ONLY, and had the meeting I described above, and you'd better believe they cleaned up their act.
I would request one last meet with the top cats and say, look, my mom needs to be fed her doctor prescribed diet and there shouldn’t be any reason to escalate things. Hopefully they see what you mean.
Are you certain that you are correct?
This would be exceptionally unusual, because as you can imagine it would/could cause diabetic crisis, more staff needs, hospitalizations and absolute chaos.
You have, I am assuming, spoken with the administration?
What do they say to you about this negligent behavior?
It may be time to call an ombudsman.
A facility could literally lose their licensure over such a thing.
The easiest fix would be on the drinks. Nothing but water and plain coffee or plain hot tea.
Meals - I would think/hope that there are ingredients in their kitchen that could make a diabetic friendly low carb meal. For example, there are often meat, carbs and veggies at most meals. So, ditch the carbs and give her more veggies? I am probably being overly simplistic but seems like something MUST be done. How about sandwiches? Without the bread? My mom's AL offers sandwiches as an option at lunch and dinner so I would have her just get the meat and cheese.
I would be talking to someone there ASAP. This would make me crazy!! So negligent!
They serve whole milk or 2 percent milk. The very rare time they had skin or non fat, the skin had spoiled. Non fat was there one day gone the next; they have even served chocolate milk at dinner.
Is she under a doctor/endocrinologist's care for her diabetes? Because if she is, that's where I would start if I were you.
I read your mom is in her 60's with "age related decline"; does that mean she is having cognitive issues? Was her diabetes well under control before she entered the facility?
When you have diabetes, the older you get, the more "leeway" a doctor will give a patient regarding diet. Mostly because hyPOglycemia - low blood sugar - is a much greater risk as you get older than hyPERglycemia - high blood sugar - is, especially if the patient has had good control over their diabetes in the long term. Since most diabetic complications come from ***long-term*** uncontrolled glucose levels, and many older people, especially those with cognitive issues, have a hard time recognizing the symptoms of low blood sugar (which is an immediate medical crisis), the ADA recommends a higher A1C level for elderly diabetic patients, particularly those who have cognitive decline and/or are in facilities such as SNF's.
As long as mom has given her doctors' permission to talk to you, I would call her PCP/endocrinologist first and discuss this with him/her. If need be, arrange for an A1C test to see where mom is, and if those levels are acceptable for mom, her age and her particular health issues.
Not that a sugar-laden, carb heavy diet is particularly healthy for anyone, but it might not be affecting your mom's diabetes as much as you fear it is.
Good luck!
Can you explain better why this is the only option for your mom? Why is she not able to live on her own, or is she just in it for some type of rehab?
And if it's just for rehab be grateful that she'll be out soon. But if this is now her permanent home(again I'm not understanding why)I guess you'll just have to continue to talk to the director and the person in charge of the kitchen to try to get her some more healthy food options.
And please don't be spending your own money for her food. Your mom should be paying for her own food if she wants/needs something different from what she's getting at the facility.
The dietitian is the one who should have met with mom to set up her meal plan.
The lack of change falls on him or her.
There needs to be a paper trail.
Write an official letter to:
The facility administrator.
The Board of Directors.
The director / Head Chef of Food Services/The Dining Room-whoever manages it.
cc: This letter to her doctor.
If you are not local, send it certified mail.
If you are local, hand deliver it.
If they read it when you hand it to them (administrator), ask them to put in writing what they are doing about this and when the changes in her dietary orders will be in effect. Get everything in writing.
Track / journal everything: time, date, who, what transpired.
Concurrently to writing the letter, call her MD and have them call the administrator of the facility.
No matter what happens, do cc their Board of Directors. They need to know about these things. It is inexcusable.
I had to report a nursing home to their / the licensing board.
You can find out who that is (county, state). Make an official complaint.
Work with an Umbudsman, too.
Gena / Touch Matters