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Another Month, Another Home - NYTimes.com Page 1 of 3
The New York Times
The New Old Age
May, 18, 2011, 12: 10 PM
Another Month, Another Home
By: Mary Plummer
For five years, Jim Casparie pleaded with his parents, Robert and Virginia Casparie, to accept more help. His father, then 91, had Alzhiemer’s disease, and his mother, 84, diabetes and poor balance, falling frequently. When they finally agreed to move to an independent living apartment in 2008, Mr. Casparie, 61, an investment banker, thought about at last he could stop worrying about their safety.
Moving his parents from their three- bed room home in Anaheim, California, prove a colossal task, which too9k Mr. Casparie and his wife, Kris, months to organize. But not long after the move, all Casparie’s careful planning fell apart.
One summer evening in 2009, Mr. Casparie’s father fainted in the shower as his wife helped him bathe. The 911 call that followed sent the family into a dizzying spiral during which Robert Casparie was obligated to change homes eight more times in just six months.
“You feel horribly out of control. You feel horribly inadequate.” Jim Casparie said, reflecting on the string of misstep and mistakes that forced his father’s moving spree. His mother stayed put, but struggled constantly to find ways to spend with her husband.
Multiple moves are not uncommon for the elderly, according to Dr. Malaz Boustani, a geriatrician at the Healthy Aging Brain Center in Indianapolis. He regularly sees older patients make three or four unnecessary moves in six-month period. But key medical often fail to move along with then, he said.
“ The information get worse and worse every time you make a transition,” said Dr. Boustani, comparing the process to a dangerous version of schoolyard game Telephone. Since senior’s can’t always clearly communicate medical recommendations, staff at each new facility often get an altered version of the medical history. And when treatment plan details disappear, health problems can snowball.
Jim Casparie experienced this firsthand. After falling, his father was in the hospital for a week, then in a rehab facility for about two months. Eventually the elder Mr. Casparie seemed well enough to endure a move to assisted living facility-the forth transfer since vacating his three-bedroom home. But surely after he arrived at the private one-bed room apartment for his family spent a month preparing, he become visibly upset.
Another Month, Another Home-NYTimes.com Page 2 of 3
“He was crawling the walls. He was screaming,” Mr. Casparie remembers. Only later did the family realize that the elder Mr. Casparie’s prescription plan had been lost in the last transition. He was suffering withdrawal from antidepressants.
Medical problems become to multiply. Robert Casparie developed ulcers on his feet, and in just 10 days the wounds were deep and bloody, almost down to the bone. He was whisked off to a nursing home to recover, as the Casparie’s restarted their search for still another assisted living home.
To ward off the problems that can lead to multiple moves. Dr. Boustani suggests appointing a family member as a transition coach. You can hire someone- a geriatric care manager or Case Manager, for example-to fill his role. In any event, the key is assigning one person to be present with the older adult during any medical appointment. From there, transition coaches can tackle tasks like creating and monitoring a medication list, and helping to establish and carry out long -term, and transitional care wishes, Another tip: Become familiar with your local network of aging services, and don’t be afraid to knock on their doors when problems arise.
Moves can generate enormous stress, particularly when they’re prompted, by medical emergencies, which typically required quick action. “The faster the decision needs to be made, the more you will need help,” said Dr. Philip Sloane, associate chairman of the family medicine department at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Dr. Sloane suggested families work hard to plan ahead, before emergencies strike. Even though time is short, families should do what they can to make sure that a prospective home is able to meet the needs of aging adult. A common culprit in multiple moves is the discovery, too late, that a facility is unable to provide an adequate level of care.
The Casparie’s struggled to find a facility that provided a sufficient level of care for Robert Casparie- and in the end, the effort required nine moves. The family finally found a suitable home for himin a memory care unit at an assisted living facility in Placentia, California. There, he was at last reunited with his wife. He died in January at age 94.
When Jim Casparie describes the experience, he sounds exhausted. “I feel like I’ve learned at least a master’s degree in the last several months, if not a Ph.D.,” he said. “A lot of people like me are going through an ad hoc experimentation trying to find the right resources, the right help, the right answer, and they just don’t exist in any convenient spot right now.”
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 19, 2011
Another Month, Another Home-NYTimes.com Page 3 of 3
An earlier version of this post misspelled the family’s surname. It is Casparie, not Casperie.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 18, 2011
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this post included a redundant sentence suggesting that Mr. Casparie’s father was transferred to two assisted living facilities shortly after rehab. In fact, he went to just one before transfer to a nursing home following medical implications.
Copyright 2011 Pamela D. Wilson, All Rights Reserved.
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