Today has been uplifting. My sister and I took my father to his attorney to find out if he is somehow legally bound to have 24 hour care. Not that we would want him to be on his own, at his house. Rather he has been insistent that he finds out who has authority to keep him locked up and challenge them.
After he was released from the hospital in January 2009 he was sent to Sentry Hill with a note indicating he required 24 hour care. We didn't know who could make such decisions and who could challenge them or what the decision was based on, his mental or physical condition.
My fathers attorney told us that typically a family doctor will decide this or it could be others. And once this recommendation was made it would have to be the attorney general who would rescind it. Additionally, if my father were to move back home and someone saw him in a situation that they thought may be neglectful the Attorney General's office would assign him a guardian. We don't think my father would be safe living on his own. Though we both are appreciative my father is so close by my father begs to differ. We left the attorney's office with not much encouraging information, sadly.
After the meeting I offered to take my dad out for coffee so he and I drove a mile up the street to the York Hospital Cafeteria. As we sat drinking coffee and he ate a doughnut, many times he told me he wanted to go to talk to the person who was above the social worker at Sentry Hill. I needed to get to work and told him I didn't think we would get very far and really didn't know what to ask. He was insistent, so we left the hospital and returned to Sentry Hill.
We entered the building and walked down the hallway and to the business offices. We found the administrator right away and she was very interested to hear what my father needed to express. She asked him what was on his mind and although he deferred to me initially I told him to give it a go and he did a remarkable job at expressing how frustrated he was with being locked in. She listened very attentively and asked him if he moved to a section where he would not be locked in, if after he left that he would always return. He said yes, and explained he was very trustworthy and added that she was causing him great distress by keeping him locked up. She felt his anguish and seemed very sympathetic.
She made no promises to him but said she would talk with the social worker and the head nurse and get a consensus. He pressed her a bit to find out when they would decide and she gave him the impression that perhaps tomorrow.
I was very proud of my father. The way I am when one of my kids do something spectacular. He had lots of determination and focus and really made a difference for himself. He demonstrated that he had intelligence and lots of common sense.
It has been difficult to know that he has been locked up. The people he is with in the Alzheimer's unit seem to be at a more advanced stage of the disease. Also, these are not people he would choose to be with, he has no history with them. It is not like they are friends or even acquaintances. He does seem to partake in some of the activities they offer like singing and throwing a ball but when I have taken him to his house he is vastly more stimulated.
I am hopeful that he will get a chance to go outside on these lovely spring days and feel a bit of freedom once again in this stage of his life.
After he was released from the hospital in January 2009 he was sent to Sentry Hill with a note indicating he required 24 hour care. We didn't know who could make such decisions and who could challenge them or what the decision was based on, his mental or physical condition.
My fathers attorney told us that typically a family doctor will decide this or it could be others. And once this recommendation was made it would have to be the attorney general who would rescind it. Additionally, if my father were to move back home and someone saw him in a situation that they thought may be neglectful the Attorney General's office would assign him a guardian. We don't think my father would be safe living on his own. Though we both are appreciative my father is so close by my father begs to differ. We left the attorney's office with not much encouraging information, sadly.
After the meeting I offered to take my dad out for coffee so he and I drove a mile up the street to the York Hospital Cafeteria. As we sat drinking coffee and he ate a doughnut, many times he told me he wanted to go to talk to the person who was above the social worker at Sentry Hill. I needed to get to work and told him I didn't think we would get very far and really didn't know what to ask. He was insistent, so we left the hospital and returned to Sentry Hill.
We entered the building and walked down the hallway and to the business offices. We found the administrator right away and she was very interested to hear what my father needed to express. She asked him what was on his mind and although he deferred to me initially I told him to give it a go and he did a remarkable job at expressing how frustrated he was with being locked in. She listened very attentively and asked him if he moved to a section where he would not be locked in, if after he left that he would always return. He said yes, and explained he was very trustworthy and added that she was causing him great distress by keeping him locked up. She felt his anguish and seemed very sympathetic.
She made no promises to him but said she would talk with the social worker and the head nurse and get a consensus. He pressed her a bit to find out when they would decide and she gave him the impression that perhaps tomorrow.
I was very proud of my father. The way I am when one of my kids do something spectacular. He had lots of determination and focus and really made a difference for himself. He demonstrated that he had intelligence and lots of common sense.
It has been difficult to know that he has been locked up. The people he is with in the Alzheimer's unit seem to be at a more advanced stage of the disease. Also, these are not people he would choose to be with, he has no history with them. It is not like they are friends or even acquaintances. He does seem to partake in some of the activities they offer like singing and throwing a ball but when I have taken him to his house he is vastly more stimulated.
I am hopeful that he will get a chance to go outside on these lovely spring days and feel a bit of freedom once again in this stage of his life.
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