My mother is in the unit. She will not takes medicines. We have used a compound pharmacy to make a gel to put the medicine on her neck. She is refusing that now. She is agitated, fearful, tries to kick the caregivers and pretends to shoot them with her finger. Can the home request a patient leave? She prided herself on not taking any pills when she didn't have the dementia.
My Mom wouldn't take medicine, so the nurse would put the ground pill into apple sauce... that didn't work because my Mom didn't like apple sauce. So one nurse tried chocolate ice cream.... WE HAVE A WINNER.
Then at dinner, if Mom got chocolate ice cream to eat [without the ground up pill], she wouldn't eat it because it didn't taste as good as the morning ice cream :)
When my mother moved to an assisted living facility where she's resided for the past five years she's been taking her meds....mostly. She's bipolar and even though she's taking medication she still has minor manic episodes. On two occasions she refused all meds for several weeks. The facility states that they cannot force a resident to take meds as it's a violation of their rights, but they continued to offer them to her every day. Then suddenly she just started taking them again. I know this isn't a solution to your problem but can a person be forced to take medication? Is it a violation of their rights?
Check to see what meds she is on, and if they are absolutely necessary. I find that sometime LTC facilities tend to overmedicate people---the piles of pills people take in LTC facilities is mind boggling---and the meds they are trying to give her may not even be necessary. If you have legal control over her medical care, you can tell them to discontinue all medications. I agree with SallyA, but it sounds as if the meds she is on don't do anything to control her behavior. One thing I hated as a young nurse was fighting with elderly people with dementia/Alzheimer's to take their pills----they had no quality of life, didn't know who they were, where they were, what day it was, or who their family members were, wouldn't eat unless they were force fed, became incontinent, fell numerous times trying to get out of bed by themselves, etc. It's like torturing them, and for what? To keep them going with absolutely no quality of life? Usually it was those people that were on a pile of meds & I used to ask myself "WHY?" the doctors would do this to those people. Leave them alone.
I laughed when I read about your mother pointing her finger and mock shooting the nurse! She must have a sense of humor left in her somewhere.
I will tell you about a situation I had with the 82 yrs male friend I take care of. I had been to the drug store to get his meds etc. and saw one of those red rubber noses that walgreens' had - I bought one on impulse. When I got back home I was tired and crabby and had no patience. I was trying to carry all the groceries etc. in the house and put them away. Of course, like a toddler, my friend wanted my attention. I, like an overworked caregiver had no patience and voiced it. I gave him the "red nose thingy" and he left the room. It was very quiet in the house - then he returned to the kitchen WITH THE RED NOSE ON!!! All I could do is laugh and give him a hug. So I think the suggestion that the nurse pretend to be shot might just be an approach that could work. If anything it could break the tension and help you mom and her caretakers to solve a problem with a little humor to get cooperation. Kind of like when you are feeding a toddler that doesn't want to eat and you play airplane that zooms the food into his mouth.
I write this not to make fun of a serious situation but to recognize your moms' feelings and help her feel in charge and co-operate.
rosepetal
After he died, my hubby and I went to clean h is condo. We upended his chair and there were about 100 pills, all surreptitiously stuffed down between the recliner side and to the floor. All we could do was laugh, He'd won.
I'd think in a NH they had a million and one ways to get meds in patients. Maybe your mom just doesn't want you there at "pill time". Tell her you are popping out for minute while she takes her meds. And DON'T go back in until she has. She might be exerting what tiny bit of authority that she has left to show you she's still in charge. Just a guess--but you have her in a NH, so she must need the care. Let the nurses do their jobs.
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