The bottom line is more money or less money doesn’t change the hearts of the people offering to care for your loved one. They either have the right heart or they don’t….. By Angil Tarach RN GCM I just finished reading Do You Really Get to Choose the Facility for a Dementia Patient? As the article started I expected it to go into what an awful place the hospital had sent Great Grams. The article didn’t go as I expected, and because of what was written, I have decided to take this article further. In my 30+ years in senior care and advocacy I have spent an incredible amount of time in long term care facilities. I have seen the best, the worst, and everything in between. What I know is many people base their decision or opinion of a nursing home on the décor, and the scent. People who haven’t had any experience or much exposure to long term care facilities have the idea that if the place is new and beautiful, and doesn’t smell of urine it must be good. Let’s just address the odor and get that out of the way. There are lots of odors in nursing homes. What isn’t understood is some are temporary and some are permanent. If the furniture and/or carpet have been repeatedly soiled by urine it becomes a permanent scent in the facility and this is a definite red flag to avoid this one like the plague! You will generally only know if you see several stain marks on the furniture or floors or visit more than once at different times. There are generally quite a few residents in any long term care facility who suffer with incontinence. There are also regular times of the day when the staff is tending to those residents, such as first thing in the morning, after breakfast and before lunch, before shift change, after lunch and dinner, at bedtime, and during the night. Typically there will be approximately 6 or so incontinence care rounds by the staff in a 24 hour period, not including individual unscheduled care. If you visit or tour a facility at any of those times, you most likely will experience odors you would rather not. If the facility is providing great care, these will be temporary odors, but your impression will be “this place smells like urine”. Understanding the facility schedule can help you understand that just because you smell unpleasant odors in a facility doesn’t mean this is the constant smell your family member will be exposed to. I recommend visiting at different times to know for sure whether the odor is temporary or permanent, and keep your eyes open for signs of poor care.

Original Source of Beautiful Does Not Always Mean Better