Recently I was in a couple of nursing homes. In both cases it was mid afternoon and it looked like about a dozen residents were arranged in their wheelchairs or other chairs around the nursing station. The residents mostly seemed asleep or dazed. No one was talking.
Is this the normal way they supervise groups of residents in facilities? or is it a bad sign that the staff and residents are not engaged? I didn't expect a party atmosphere, but this looked depressing.
At first we, too, thought this was terrible. Then when Mom asked to sit there “& watch the action” when each of us would leave, we looked at it from her frame of reference. She loved watching all the comings and goings; loved being greeted by people walking by; loved talking with others about her beloved Yankees; loved gossiping with other residents; and overall just loved the quiet companionship of others. A bonus was she could doze off & on when her body told her it needed it.
We came to realize that initially we were projecting our own expectations & lack of limits on her situation. WE would find it awful if we, who could move freely, were forced to sit there. However, for Mom, who wasn’t mobile, it was the best thing possible. It actually was no different than her & I sitting in the garden or the great room together & watching others. It was certainly preferable to her being isolated in her room. Or being forced to participate in an activity she had no interest in.
Mom, who was way down the dementia path, was still teaching her middle-age children a thing or two!
If a NH is heavily Medicaid residents, it’s going to be extremely tight on staff. Whatever the required minimum needed to be open will be what staff is. For some states, the daily Medicaid room&board reimbursement is at or below the daily operating cost. There simply isn’t the budget for more staffing. Medicaid R&B is set by your state, if you want the situation to be better, you have to vote in elected officials that will put state funds into Medicaid programs and support all Medicaid programs.
Remember this when you vote next week.
So I wouldn’t be concerned if there’s a group of people near the station. I would be worried if there were no residents at any activities. And I would be very worried if residents are left in the hallways away from the eyes of the nursing station. And you might see a different picture if you visited in the morning.
You're right about the party atmosphere, though; and I have to admit that thinking back to the various views elders I know have had, it's made no real difference to how engaged any one of them was by that stage. Lovely gardens, art works, tropical fish, t.v., souvenirs, photos, other people... I suppose by the time you're that frail and tired, what's inside your head claims most of the attention you can spare.
In time the joy wore off, but it was great while it lasted.