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TALKING RESPITE: With a Facility Manager

Finding respite through a day center, assisted living or a nursing facility? Here's what needs to be discussed.

BY:FRAN SILVERMAN

It is vital to start a relationship with respite-care workers that will benefit both the loved one and the caregiver, says Sara Myers, managing director of the National Adult Day Services Association. She advises the following:

 

If using a facility to provide respite coverage...

 

Become familiar with the policies of
the facility

Check on staff training and staffing levels, how the facility handles emergencies, patient wandering and how they handle a patient
who doesn't like to be in groups or
won't participate in certain activities

Ask how staff members handle
sensitive personal care issues such
as incontinence

Find out what approach staff members use toward difficult behavior

Ask how they handle patients with specific nutrition needs

Become familiar with staff supervisors and facility directors to
whom care recipients can speak if they have a complaint in your
absence or if you later want to discuss an issue that came up
during the time of care

 

Also, go over the daily care instructions. Topics to discuss include but are not limited to:

 

When and how often you want to be updated on your
loved one's status while you're away

Contact information, including how you want to
be contacted—e-mail? cell phone?—with the appropriate
addresses and numbers

Emergency contacts, in case you are not reachable

Foods to serve and feeding schedule

Medications to provide and on what schedule

Forms of entertainment your loved one enjoys

Areas of need, such as rising from a chair or bed, toileting,
dressing, bathing

Guests who might pay a visit