Rehabilitation center giving mom morphine to calm down?

They can give meds as prescribed by the MD. Ativan (lorazepam) only works for 4 hours, so I can see where that got used up. I will guess they checked with the MD and got a complete list of Rx's.

It will be easier to address your concerns if you can tell us more about your mother.
As pam said the rehab center can give a patient any medications that are legally prescribed.
It sounds as though she may be a hospice patient and some hospices do supply drugs that may be needed as the patient's decline continues. Morphine for pain is one of those drugs.
Many people especially those with dementia become agitated when moved from their usual surroundings so as the morphine was prescribed and available it sounds perfectly reasonable to use.
Many rehab facilities do not have a pharmacy available or a Dr on the premises. It may take at least 24 hours to get a medication prescribed and delivered.
Try and stop being mad and be thankful that the staff used their common sense and the medication available to soothe your mother rather than let her agitation continue.
A dose of morphine at the end of life does not an addict make, but you are right to be vigilant.

A doctor must have prescribed the morphine, but that seems excessive to me as a nurse. I would not use this facility again for your respite.

I agree with ferris1!! Saw Dad die Nov.2, 2015 and they started to give him morphine almost as soon as I signed the hospice papers because he wanted to go to the bathroom himself! Sorry I am still up-set. I am going to your profile. Have not looked at it yet.

Morphine is usually prescribed for pain. It has addictive properties as well. There might be some physicians who might prescribe it to calm fear and anxiety but I certainly would question that decision.With so many other meds to use for calming why did they chose this drug? Would the other drugs she takes have been a factor? Since it is not clear what Moms condition is I also am curious why she went to a "rehab" center so you could get respite. It is good that you got that respite as it is always needed for the caregiver, I agree with ferris1.....I would never use a facility that would prescribe morphine as a drug to calm someone down. I also would not want to deal with a facility or doctor that does not have the professional courtesy to inform the primary caregiver that they are prescribing such an addictive opiate.

Wow, this sounds familiar... My mother was in rehab after a hospital stay in late 2014. With her dementia, the change in environment created a lot of restlessness and anxiety. This particular facility gave her Oxycontin - and she was so heavily sedated, she appeared to be dying. I am convinced that if we'd left her there, she'd be long-dead by now. She is now a permanent resident in a nursing facility that operates by the "less-is-more" approach, where medications are given in conservative doses (and NO opiates for behavior problems!). Hopefully you have choices where you live, and you can opt for a better place next time.

Oxycotin! This is like Heroin. I agree, facility can only give meds if Dr. allows.

Agreed, Oxy is the last med I'd want for anyone (let alone an elderly person). Unfortunately, when a facility administers medication, they are doing it at the behest of their in-house physician. So if the MD has the mind-set that opiates are an acceptable means for sedation, then the nursing staff will fall in line behind them - in a sense, the facility MD can really set the tone of how patients are handled. Or mishandled.

Morphine is going to send the elder into bad hallucinations. Go to the director.

Whatever purpose this facility serves in most of its rooms most of the time, A 4-day stay to give a caregiver a break is not "rehab". It is simply respite. And it is absolutely essential for caregivers to have periodic respite, so I cheer when any type of facility makes respite care available.

I don't usually think of morphine for anything but pain. I wonder if Mom said she was in pain when they asked her what the matter was. Possible, right?

This sounds like a Hospice situation. Is that the case? I guess I would not worry so much about what prescribed medications she is given over a 4-day period. She was not given anything except what was available in the assortment you brought. The only real question is was that the best choice, and I think we'd need to know a lot more about the situation to guess at that.

I imagine she is back at home now. How are things going? I hope you did get some much-needed rest.

Jeannie finally a voice of reason! I wonder where OP has got to?

I guess the different surroundings amplified her anxiety to the point Ativan wasn't working as well as expected. Or, as a few of my sisters in this forum suggested, the med ran out. The doctor then used morphine as a general anesthetic. Just enough to calm her down; not knock her out as they do in other places where patients sleep off their entire stay and wake up totally clueless.

If I say anything about morphine I am afraid that saw hospice organization will put me on a hit list. I saw what they did to my Father and can not sleep at night because of the images in my mind. It is hard to understand unless you are there! We all want to trust the medical field but have to realize that when they can no longer make money on you they Kind of put you down so to speak. I am sure that morphine is sometimes used correctly but with the new medical system that we have and Medicare wanting to save money the elderly are at risk. My husband and I would be considered the elderly now. 60 to about 75 is the golden years and above seem to be the rusted years. Sorry

As I read more of the comments, I am so sorry these facilities are giving your loved ones morphine or gave them this powerful pain killer. Even without dementia, I would be "anxious" in an unfamiliar environment, strangers and having my routine broken. With my husband, when he starts to get agitated, I change the scenery. I recently bought a 35 yr. old golf cart, he used to play golf and we get the dogs in it and all of us go up to the golf course and ride around. The fresh air, green surroundings and geese/ducks in the lake calms him down. When we arrive back home he is fine. I am sure he remembers having played golf worldwide. Find what your loved one used to do and do it instead of drugs.

Not knowing a lot about your Mom's condition, its hard to say but probably the facility doctor ordered the morphine and tranquilizer to be given because your mother kept trying to get up. The elderly do not adjust well to any change and become very agitated. Along with the agitation and dementia is the strong desire to remain independent, thus the insistence of getting up to go to the bathroom.
With our permission, the NH is giving my mother morphine and colonzapam and she is pretty much out of it too but in her case it is the only way for her to be safe. The morphine was added after she got up and fell and broke her pelvis. Although she is too weak to walk, she has constantly tried to get up (despite alarms, padding, surveylance, and light restraint) but she is so fast they can't turn their backs on her for even a minute and still she has fallen a couple of times, including in the hospital. Seniors are weak, but they are determined, and amazingly strong when they want to be. Facilities don't have the staff to watch every agitated patient 24/7 so they are faced with the decision to either sedate or restrain. In Mom's NH, they call to inform or get permission for every change they make.
You need to talk to the facility and doctor and come up with a plan on how your mother will be kept from hurting herself.

Go Ferris!

Ferris, you r such a good wife. Such a great idea.