He eats in a dining room which is where most of the incidents are happening and it's a problem because no one is directly paying attention to him and anytime a nurse sees someone fall and possibly hit their head, they have to call an ambulance and send them to the ER. Most of the time it hasn't been necessary and it's expensive! He tends to fall asleep easily and then leans of course but the chairs have thin arms and he falls out easy. He also has dementia so he wouldn't remember to always bring some sort of device with him to meals. Any ideas on what I can do to help?
Meanwhile, I would be finding another place for your dad. If you didn't do your homework last time, hopefully this particular incident has taught you a lesson to carefully research facilities before placing anyone in there. Be thankful that your dad survived and he falls he had at this particular facility because hitting your head at an advanced age can actually be fatal to some people. Let this be a lesson learned.
You might want to talk to the next facility and have him put into a geriatric chair for his safety in case he does fall asleep. They can put him in a slightly reclined position in that chair or just let him stay in bed and eat. At very least they can use the electronic feature on the bed and prop him up to a comfortable sitting or slightly reclined position. That way, if he does happen to fall asleep at least he'll be in his own bed but he must be in a position where if he falls asleep he won't fall out of bed either.
As for strapping someone in, there are solutions for that. Some special wheelchairs are equipped with side panels that go up on either side of your ribs, and some of them even have reclining features. That way, the person is not strapped in but just propped up and prevented from actually falling over
Although you can not "restrain" a person there are clip on tables for wheelchairs that will sort of prevent one from sliding out, or tipping out.
My Husband would list to one side and I would keep the back of the wheelchair slightly reclined so that he was not in a complete upright position. Made it a bit more difficult to lean forward to slide out.
The last chair I had for my Husband was a Broda Chair. it had slight sides to it almost like one of the "old fashioned" wing back chairs. With that bit of a side up near the shoulders he was less likely to slip and the "wings" prevented him from leaning too far to one side.
Sadly, they are not allowed to 'strap him in' - and falls will happen. They are following procedure to call an ambulance. Think of the lawsuits if they didn't.
You might also consider bringing him to the dining room in a wheelchair. Those are harder to fall out of. High sides and the table in front of him. He could even be belted in.