When to Move From Rehabilitation Center to Memory Care
Vivant Senior Living resident receiving in-home physical therapy
We get many calls from families who have loved ones in rehabilitation centers. Typically their loved one had recently sustained a significant injury or illness that landed them in a hospital. After the hospital, they were transferred to a rehab for a short-to-medium stay to continue receiving 24/7 nursing care. Or they were staying at an assisted living facility or home and suffered a fall or illness that required a higher level of care.
The story of how they got to the rehabilitation center is essential. Still, you are probably reading this if you are trying to decide if it's time to move your family member from a rehabilitation center to memory care. Here are a few essential items to consider when deciding if moving to memory care would be a good fit.
Your loved one is stable and recovering from their significant injury or illness
Your loved one flourishes in a more calm, home-like environment with tasty meals and warm, soft lighting
Your loved one thrives with social engagement and activities
We understand that your family member still has dementia and will most likely need assistance with medication management, eating, showering, and toileting. But, you would like to see your loved one get back to their baseline before the injury or illness. Vivant Senior Living has seen a lot of success with transitioning residents from rehab back to memory care. Each of our homes has four to six residents maximum, and our entire caregiving team trains and specializes in dementia care.
Most of the residents we see coming back from hospital and rehabilitation stays were in more austere medical environments with lots of lights, sounds, and nurse activity. You want this environment and care when you are in a critical condition, and your loved one needs help stabilizing, but it can be tough to get long-term rest and healing in this environment. We also find that all new medications used to stabilize your loved one can impact their long-term function and memory health. At Vivant Senior Living, we take great pride in our ability to work with your family member's primary care provider to make sure they can continue their path to a pre-injury or illness baseline. A warm, home-like environment where they can get better rest, social engagement, and tasty food significantly impacts returning to their normality. We understand that a significant fall or illness can change their baseline, but we do our best to get them back to where they were before rehab.