What can I do for an elder that is experiencing severs confusion and hallucinations to occur after being placed in a nursing home?

Most of it is due to a syndrome called "Transfer Trauma" - it is serious and real - not in their heads. That is why nursing homes say its not unusual.....if it happens to your loved one, you should know that your understanding and being there without judgement to get them through it might help them from crashing.

Rather than explain it, anyone interested can fiind plenty of material on the subject - through google or medical sites....don't rely on the popular 'webmd' type sites..not much there.

Annlidiot, I wondered about that. But would it cause them to act like ( the walking dead ) is what I have heard.

I think if/when mom has to go into a nursing home, to be with her as much as possible for a few days until she is familiar with some of the staff and the grounds, and that she would be securing knowing I was not dumping her. A recent hospital stay in the same room as a ranting screaming deaf woman threw mom into a hallucinatory spin for one episode. And that got doctors thinking she was way down on the Alzheimer's scale. Next thing I was having talks with palliative care team. Mom did this another hospital stay with screaming roommate. Zoned out a whole Alzheimer's level.

AlzCaregiver, That is a good idea. It is such a awful disease. They say people are getting it left and right.

what Alzcareagiver said about zoing out an entire level is why being sensitive to surroundings and input is so important to anyone with cognitive problems. Add meds to that and you have the makings of a nightmare. I am struck by the fact that we are seeing our own futures and should be striving to make the systems better while we fight for the best care for our parents.

I saw a difference in my mom's behavior which was stable when the construction on our street started using toxic compounds to resurface their driveway. They are fragile, and one day we might be too. Nursing homes are no panacea - if you are stressed and can't handle caring for them at home thats perfectly ok. Nursing homes are by nature imperfect and impersonal despite what the brochures say - so a vibrant sociable elder may like assisted living or having sing a longs, but I wonder if lying in a convalescant home with 24 tvs blaring up & down the halls and no visitors is not a future I want for myself, or my mom. Bless everyone who tries their hardest no matter where their loved ones are.

Annlidiot, Amen

Forgot about a few looney tunes episodes with my mom. She was in a nursing home for 5 weeks for broken hip, but it wasn't seen as end of the road, but actual recovery...and she did. However, as many times as I told anyone not to give her certain painkillers, they did, and she went looney tunes. On her chart it was written that she was allergic to these, but actually she had become addicted to them. 20 pills a day maybe, where 2 would have done it. So, watch out for those meds! Another poster mentioned street construction. We had same here, with 2 solid weeks of jackhammers right outside Mom's bedroom window, starting at 7:30 am. She woke up most mornings confused, and sometimes thinking she was in hell. It was hell, I'll agree there!

AlzCaregiver,

That is what I am afraid of. That is why I will keep my husband as long as I can.

My sister was in one. The nurse had a bad hand. She made my sister sit in the wheel chair because it was easy for the nurse to change the dressing on her arm. My sister just got back from a treatment and was VERY tired.

They did the same thing to my husband with blood pressure meds. I found out they gave it to him. The MG may have been lower but they still did it.

Our family is not safe in a nh, I don't care what others say.

I think that part of the difference between a "good nh" and a bad one is whether or not the home belongs to a corporation and is a "for profit" home. I have found that the "for profit" homes in this area seem to hire people who appear to me to be all about a paycheck. I takes special people to work in the environment found in a nh and I haven't found any such people in the 2 in my area!!

How are you going to be able to know that any one given nh is what they should be. You would have to be there 24/7. But they wouldn't do anything in front of you - like over drug a person, which they do - I don't trust any of them. Three different nh I have seen enough not to want my husband in one. I don't like taking him to the hospital. With what happened to me when I was in one of the best hospitals here when I had my heart attack. I didn't know the nurse hook up my IV. He did it when I was asleep. I got up to go to the bathroom and fell on the floor pulling the IV out, the stand it was on fell on the floor. After they got me back in bed. He threw all of his needles and what ever else was there on my bed. He slap my hand hard to get a vain up. My vains were up. I should of reported him and now I wish I had. Too much of this goes on and they do nothing about it anyway.