You’ve spent years caregiving, you added in home care and then you decided it was time for a memory care community. You researched, maybe had some help, toured a few places and chose one. You moved your dad in and then one day you couldn’t find his lotion. In this post we are exploring what’s locked up.
This is something that can be really hard to get used to. In fact one of my guests on my podcast episode 46 talks about how frustrating this was. Every time she wanted to put lotion in her dad’s arms or help him brush his teeth… everything was locked up.
In this episode I’m going to discuss why things are locked up, your part in this practice and what you might expect when you need a locked up item.
First and most important let’s explore the why. Many times those with Alzheimer’s and Dementia lose their ability to correctly identify products. Jodi,who I worked with and whose story you’ll find in podcast episode 45, recounted some of the signs that their mom’s Alzheimer’s had advanced. Her mom loved her coffee with creamer but instead of using the coffee creamer she kept putting ranch dressing in her coffee. Both containers looked the same.
One of my good friends and someone you should definitely follow, Dementia Darling, has an Instagram post where she squirts out a nice big amount of sweet smelling lotion in her hands and says… ooh! This smells great and it looks like frosting! Yum!
Well yuck to us! But to your loved one with Alzheimer’s or another form of Dementia… they may have lost the ability to know the difference.
And this is why… memory care communities and adult families homes in most states are required to not only to lock up your loved one’s medications but also their toiletries and the building’s cleaning supplies and where they’re available to residents, you’ll even find the refrigerator is under lock and key.
So what does this mean for you?
There are actually two really important points here that many families don’t realize and the first one is that like I mentioned earlier… You may be thinking… My mom always has her lotion by her bedside table. This is something we do every night… I get her lotion and she loves when I massage her arms and hands….but in most states this routine will have to change.
But let’s take this a little further…. one day you walk into her room and you’re like…where’d her lotion go because you had put it there on move in day. So you run to the store and bring back her favorite lotion… you go through your relaxing massage and you leave the lotion on her bedside table where it’s always been and then you leave.
In that moment without realizing it you may have unknowingly put your mom at risk, other residents at risk and in some states even the community at risk for getting a citation.
Now this doesn’t mean you can’t bring your mom’s favorite lotion and it doesn’t mean you can’t continue your lotion massage routine what it means is that you’ll label the lotion, give that lotion to a staff member to lock up and when you want to use it again you may have to track down a staff member and you may have to wait. This is why the guest that I mentioned from our podcast episode 46 was so frustrated! It sometimes took a while before getting the items she needed.
And this applies to anything that could be eaten…including vitamins, tums and…even flowers and plants.You want to make sure they’re edible before bringing them in. Oh and don’t bring breakable containers…Just in case!
The lock up list is actually something that should’ve been communicated with you during the paperwork or move in process and probably was but the move in process can be really overwhelming! So hopefully this blog post helps make your journey a little more doable.
If you’d like to check out our blog post in podcast form, be sure to take a listen HERE!
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