A Life Complete by Sallirae Henderson

Author:Sallirae Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Self-Help
Publisher: SCRIBNER
Published: 2000-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Betty

Betty had gone into a nursing home because her safety requirements had moved beyond what her husband, himself disabled, could physically provide. Healthy aside from her Alzheimer’s, she was restless, physically strong, and territorial. Unfortunately, her need for both safety and freedom of movement could not be met in a nursing home designed to accommodate the very ill and frail. The nursing staff ’s constant activity and noise overstimulated Betty and increased her restlessness. The combination of her restlessness and territoriality took her into the rooms of other, more frail residents. She frightened them with demands that they leave, or blocked their doors so they couldn’t get out. The medication that relieved her restlessness caused her to be unsteady on her feet. Fearing that she would fall and injure herself, the staff recommended that Betty be moved to a facility more appropriate to her needs.

Betty’s new residence, not a nursing home, is designed to accommodate the physically healthy and active Alzheimer’s client. She shares a room that opens directly onto a large public area furnished like a living room, with wall-to-wall carpeting, comfortable seating for conversation, and a kitchen and dining area at the L-shaped end. The noise and activity levels are kept very low, lessening the need for medication to control the restlessness and agitation caused by overstimulation. In this calmer setting, with fewer medications necessary, Betty’s walking is now stable and her chances of falling greatly diminished. If she sleeps during the day and wanders all night, that’s okay too—doors to the elevators are secured so she can’t wander off her floor and out of the building. The small, cozy kitchen is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with snacks and beverages always available and a staff person on hand for quiet conversation and company.

When I went to visit Betty at her new home a few weeks after her move, I was astonished at the change in her. She sat with four other men and women watching a 1940s movie on a small television set whose volume was turned low. Gone was the pinched, angry look on her face. She smiled calmly and took the hand her husband offered. She recognized him and seemed to recognize me. I introduced myself to the others in the group, each of whom responded with a handshake and their own name. One of them, a beautiful woman wearing a black turtleneck sweater, her gorgeous white hair in a French roll with loose wisps haloing her face, introduced herself happily as Alice. Then, throwing her arms wide, she gaily declared, “Alice in Wonderland!” When Betty was asked later if she knew where she was, she replied with a big smile, “A resort!”

Alice and Betty, both with Alzheimer’s disease, are happy women. They are in a setting designed to accommodate their strengths and their impairments. Betty, once angry and bullying because she could not cope with the routines of a medical setting (a level of care she didn’t yet require), now feels she is living in a resort, with things to do and people to be with.

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