And the Dance Continues

This has been the longest week EVER! And M has remained in the behavioral health unit since Monday evening. Even though I know he’s safe and receiving the care he needs, I still can’t seem to relax and get a decent night’s sleep.

I know the nurses in the unit can’t, or shouldn’t, discuss what’s going on with M, but I’ve called up there every day to find out how he’s doing and they really don’t tell me anything. It’s almost like pulling teeth to get any information out of them.

A social worker finally called me Thursday to let me know that M was going to be discharged on Friday. When I told her I didn’t know how that was going to happen when I hadn’t spoken to they physician and nothing had been done to set up “what’s next” in his care plan, she told me that the physician had been talking to M about the care plan.

Yep. Talking to a dementia patient about his care plan. Anyone see a problem with this?

I let the social worker know that, no, M would NOT be discharged on Friday. He had not been on the new medication long enough for us to assess its effectiveness and nothing had been done to get the next steps of his care plan in place. PLUS, no one had talked to me – his caregiver and power of attorney.

Finally, FINALLY on Friday, one of the providers that has been involved in M’s care called me and we talked about his progress and what’s been going on. She let me know that, not only is he on the new medication, he also has a PRN (as needed) prescription for more of the new medicine, if he needs it.

This is the best news of all. There’s something on deck just in case.

The provider I spoke with also let me know that she is aware M is not able to be involved in any care decisions, so I felt much better about that, too. She and the rest of the care team are now working with the long-term care facility I originally had set up for M to move in to. The long-term care facility has some hoops they want the behavioral health providers to jump through, and I’m going to let them handle it.

Once all the boxes are checked and tests are run, M will transfer directly from the behavioral health unit to long-term care. It should make the move a little bit easier. I hope.

Maybe then I’ll be able to relax and will be able to sleep better.