My mother has 6 stage dementia and when she is in another world she will get up and walk all over her room until she falls somewhere, she is very heavy and when it is time to assist her up, then she forgets how to get up. She falls one or two time a night. No one else lives with us, and I have told her doctors, she is on trazadone but it just doesn't do the job.
When my LO, who is in Memory Care, was getting up during the night, they installed a bed alarm, that alerts the staff when she gets up and they are able to get to her and prevent her from falling. You have to be fast to get to her though. Perhaps, sleeping in the same room might help. And, some have suggested that you put the bed low to the floor. If she's heavy, perhaps, if the bed was low, she'd have a harder time getting up? I might also explore hiring someone to watch her throughout the night and prevent her from getting up alone.
Also, do you know why she's getting up? Is she going to the bathroom or is it aimless walking with no apparent reason?
And, since she is on medicaid, they may consider that fraud. And she is currently under hospice care since she was recently re-diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia.
And she had a recent (2nd major one this year) bout of pneumonia and was in hospital for 7 days.
I couldn't sleep well the day they told me this, and of course came to this site looking for some suggestions in peoples answers.
Some nursing homes do not use hospital beds with rails as the state they are in considers it to be a restraint.
So for mom, they got together to devise a different plan of attack. Due to the incontinence, they would check her every 2 hours to see if she needed her brief changed. They put a gel mat down by the bed and lowered the bed. And it already had an alarm. Some of my moms nurses even check on her every 15 minutes or so, if she is in a long sleep pattern.
This morning, once again, she fell. rolled out of bed at 3am. no breaks, vitals stable.
She seems ok. This occured just after the aid had left the room.
Falls are very common with the elderly, especially with dementia/alzhiemer patients. They forget what is where, what time of day it is, what day it is, who is who.
They may recognize you if you are the person that is with them the most, and sometimes even remember your name. But in later stages of dementia they have drastic memory issues, which contribute to their body mis-functions.
Best of luck with finding your solution to help prevent falls.