Assisted Living Care: How Much Care is Assisted Care?

Saturday night is scheduled for bingo at the New Jersey Senior Care House, but something else is grabbing everyone's attention. A fellow resident has fallen and is alone in her apartment. Eighty-seven-year-old Lorraine Walters has no caregiver; only a roommate: her 83-year-old brother who suffers from Alzheimer's.

Eighty-seven-year old resident with no caregiver, Lorraine falls,
waitsfor security for assistance. Photo By Antoinette Herrmann

Bethany, a caregiver for another client, has seen Walters brother, Chris, wondering around the hallway, looking distressed. She runs into their apartment to check if everything is fine. In there, she finds Walters lying flat on her back. "All I could do is help her sit up," says the 25-year-old, who fetches a glass of water for the elderly woman and alerts security.
Lorraine is a bit on the heavy side. She barely walks and with a walker. Sometimes, she gets around in a wheelchair. Getting her from the floor into her recliner would mean almost lifting her. Bethany isn't strong enough to do that. Besides, healthcare precautionary rules don't recommend lifting. It can cause serious and permanent injuries to caregivers on the job.

Nearly an hour after the caregiver found her client's elderly neighbor on the floor, security still hasn't arrived. Something else is visibly clear: What appears to be Lorraine's dinner is still sitting on her walker, not eaten, 
 two hours after dinner was served. This brings to question how long Walters had been on the floor and how hungry she might be. She asks for another glass of water and Bethany gets her ginger ale, which she actually prefers.





Lorraine sipping on ginger ale while waiting for help from
security. Photo By Antoinette Herrmann

"This is the situation here," says Bethany, referring to the security people's attitude. Bethany drives nearly an hour to work and the same back home – taking care of her client, Marjorie, from 7pm to 7am every weekend. A former client of hers recommended her to the client's family. For the unusual long distance she covers doing this job, her client's children pay her an extra amount.

"It is worth the security," says Shirley Ruell, who hired Bethany for her mother's care. "The caregivers there are OK during the day," she says in a telephone conversation about the facility's own homecare workers. "But in the night, only a few are placed on duty and one or two security workers," Ruell regrets. It is for this "inadequacy" that she and her siblings decided to go with private caregivers for their mother's overnight care: one for week nights and a second for weekends.

More than an hour later, and after a third call to security, someone shows up. He asks a few questions and with Bethany's help, gets Lorraine into her recliner.

Lorraine's dinner still sitting on her walker, not eaten, 2 hrs after
it was served. Photo By Antoinette Herrmann

Neglect and safety are two of the biggest fears seniors and their families often deal with when the idea of moving into a senior care facility comes up. What kind of care will they get in these places? Will they be given the attention they require in the absence of their loved ones? Can we go to sleep and rest assured that all is well at their end?

Contrary to the picture one gets at this senior care facility about the lack of care for residents, Rita Johnson, a college student who works there as a night reception, says Lorraine's case is an isolated one. She admits that there are fewer caregivers in the night. This however is made clear to residents and their families before moving in, she explains.

Evidently, assisted living facilities – like the name suggests – only offer partial assistance to residents. Individual residents and their families bear the responsibility to provide additional care for residents who require more care than a facility offers. But are these facts made clear to them before they sign those papers. And did Lorraine know about this? From her own statement and conversations with employees of the facility, she and her brother have no family but a power of attorney.