Once Care Facility Is Decided Upon, Questions Must Continue

Finding the right care facility for an elderly loved one, whether it’s a mother, father, aunt, uncle or some other person held dear, is a lot of work.

That work doesn’t end once the search is completed, as noted in a recent article in U.S. News and World Report. The questions that needed to be asked to find the facility must be followed up with ongoing questions once care is started, the article indicates.

“The resident’s needs should be met by the facility, rather than having the patient meet the facility’s needs,” Barbara Messinger-Rapport, director of the Cleveland Clinic‘s Center for Geriatric Medicine, told the magazine.

“Ask the questions you would want to be asked if the roles were reversed,” Cornelia Poer, a social worker in the Geriatric Evaluation and Treatment Clinic at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., was quoted as saying.

She said that these questions should include:

• Are you comfortable?
• Is anything worrying you?
• Do you feel safe?
• Do you feel respected?
• If you need help and you push the call button, how long before somebody comes?
• Have you gotten to know any of the other residents?
• Do you like the staff, and any staff member in particular?

“Show interest and concern and identify major problems, but don’t go overboard,” the article advised.”

Inquiries are important, but try to avoid turning every visit into an interrogation,” Poer said. “You will be able to determine if there are areas of concern in normal, everyday conversation.”