Despite friendly staff, a promised good staff to patient ratio, and a seemingly good start when my Mom stayed there, the facility failed to keep pace with meeting my Mom's increasing needs as she lost key abilities and suffered increasing frailty. As her body became weaker, more frail and prone to pressure sores, she was still put in a regular dining chair instead of a softer, more supportive reclining chair, contrary to family's repeated requests. When she lost the ability to eat by herself, they failed to assist her to eat nutritionally appropriate foods 'little and often', with the result of rapid, dangerous weight loss. Her behaviour was fearful and withdrawn. Despite numerous requests, they did not provide daily records of how much she had eaten or how often food was offered to her. There was no monitoring or record keeping of her food and liquid intake. The family would have accepted the facility telling us that her needs exceeded their capacity, and recommending that she go into a skilled nursing facility. Instead, they kept insisting that they were meeting her needs, even while Mom was visibly approaching preventable death. Upon the family removing her from this facility, her health immediately began to dramatically improve, with rapid weight gain, and she went on to have a significant period of a good quality of life, enjoying the optimum health possible within the limitations of her medical condition. The logical conclusion is that the preventable elements of her decline (weight loss, frequent falls, being withdrawn) during her time at the facility was due in large part to the neglect she suffered. The family also witnessed other residents having unmet needs, for example residents experiencing falls when no staff were present in the day room, and a lady who was recovering from a stroke being excluded from activities by not having obvious, easy-to-implement, adaptations offered to her. read more
