Home Evaluation/Dry Run
I am doing family training with Mom. We are walking with the walker, doing transfers from the wheelchair to walker and vice versa. We practiced getting into and out of the shower using an extended bench, and going to the toilet. I have been going to the toilet with Mom for about 3 weeks and she is getting much better at it.
The rehab center wants to do a home evaluation, which is fine with me to get any recommendations for what I should have or get done. The problem I have is that they want to do a dry run. Mom talks every day that she wants to go home. That is all she wants in life, to be home. She doesn't understand why I can't just take her home. She doesn't care what the rehab people say, she wants me to just take her to the car and go home. One evening they called me when apparently Mom had enough of sitting in her wheelchair. She just announced that she is going home and attempted to stand up. Fortunately, someone was nearby to prevent her from falling. Other times she is just agitated because she wants to be home. Every day she says she just wants to get in her own bed and sleep. This is very understandable to me because she loves being at home and has never been away from home more than a week when she went to Bermuda in 1972. Now she has been away from home for over 5 weeks.
I know that if they try to do a dry run it will be disastrous. Once Mom goes out the front door, gets in my car, and goes into her house, she will think she has gone home. She will not understand that she has to go back to the rehab an hour later. She will most likely refuse to leave. I don't want to see her physically removed from her home. I know if this happens she will boycott anything they try to do with her at the rehab; therapy, meals, medication. She will not trust me anymore, either.
Can the rehab force this to happen? I have expressed in our Care Meeting last week and to anyone else who will listen that the dry run will not be in Mom's best interest and will most likely end badly. She is just not in a frame of mind and does not currently possess the cognitive abilities to understand what their purpose is.
I would appreciate any input. Thanks
John
11 Comments
Recommended Comments