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I speak as one who has lived in assisted living going on four years. After open heart surgery, etc. I was more than ready. But, the facility was too, but only for weak personalities, people who wanted sympathy and a soft voice.
In my case, it began with their refusal to cease operating the laundry next to my bedroom all night! It quickly degenerated to anger and my looking for other things to complain about. The state ombudsman was of no help, being a weak personality supported not by law but by weak regulations obviously written by the industry.
With at least half the residents being on Medicaid or some other form of assistance and many of the rest in early stages of dementia , it is impossible to get others taking action other than complaining to me as their "leader." The only practical alternative I see is the increased active involvement of family, which has the negative aspect of only furthering the resident's feelings of powerlessness.

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you need diffrent digs. that place is not for you
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what i was thinking is, if it was the nurses doing it, it would be a night job when the patients were not so active. they wouldn't burden the day nurses with it.
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Wow, surely they could put someone who is either 1/2 deaf or who just wouldn't care next to the laundry?! That just doesn't make sense that you have to endure that. I know at the nursing home I worked at, the CNA's where expected to do about 1/2 the laundry at night....
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are nurses doing the laundry? or do they have a laundry staff?
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Ok, reason has not worked and they refuse to accomodate a very reasonable request. I had a fantasy about some "unreasonable" results of their behavior...fun to think about in any case....If they will not stop doing the laundry all night, I would simply get up and turn off the machines when they were keeping me awake! hee hee hee That will probably get some immediate responses. Just remain calm and say it is keeping you awake, so you turned it off. Sound puzzled because it is a very reasonable thing to do. After all, You know they would not deliberately keep you awake. would they?( Ask them this question) Don't argue with them, just keep turning the machines off again each time because you know they don't really want to keep you awake, do they?. They will probably put a lock on the door, but they might meet with you and the director and perhaps a new policy will evolve. You could also become " passive aggressive" and if they lock the laundry room, go into the recreation area and turn on the TV ...loud! Say you would be happy to go to bed, but since you cannot sleep because of the laundry, you thought you would watch TV. Stay in bed all day and insist you need to sleep because you were up all night..and BE up all night. Prowl around and ask them questions, engaging them in long discussions of anything you can think of, interrupting their work. Be pleasant, but interrupt whatever they are doing with talking to them. Ask them to play a game with you since you are up and can't sleep. Call 9-1-1 if they yell at you and complain they are being verbally abusive and you are afraid.Write a polite letter to the owner/director and to your doctor about the situation. Complain about all the physical and emotional results of being unable to sleep. Ask why they are doing this to you. Ask for a meeting with the clinical director or owner to resolve the problem . Keep on saying that it keeps you awake and ask why they want to do that. No matter what excuse they give, always bring it back to "so you don't really care if I cannot sleep, you are going to keep on doing this. I don't understand why you are doing this to me...what have I ever done to you? Why is it so unreasonable to want to get a good night's sleep?" Get some of the other residents to help make a list of all their complaints and call the Ombudsman every week if you have to.Call the police, Adult Protective Services, write your congressman, and the local newspaper to ask why they are deliberately depriving you of sleep. Say you are paying a lot of money to be there and cannot understand why the laundry cannot be done during the day and your room soundproofed so you can sleep. Be polite, but keep asking why they don't want you to sleep! Call a radio talk show and bring up the discussion if you have to. You might end up being moved somewhere else, but you should be able to get some sleep. And as another step, call the State Licensing Board and report the problem and the Omsbudsman!
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If you you have family to take part - they are your advocate. I don't think it takes away any of your independence - it actually gives you more as you have someone else fighting with you for your rights. My experience has been, that rooms can be changed quite easily. Often family has better luck with this just as a matter of course. In other words, it is someone else confirming and agreeing with certain things that need to be changed.

Whether payment is being paid by medicaid or private; they are taking in plenty of money - don't let them get away with anything if you can. Start with talking to the social worker and director of nursing. My mother was moved many times for various reasons. Believe me, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I formed good working relationships with those involved in facilitating changes. The patient must be compliant to a certain extent and try to be of an agreeable nature. This does reap rewards.

If you are not happy, put name on list for another facility. But, by far, i was my mother's most successful advocate and would not take no for an answer with reapect to things that were not being done properly. Best to all and stay strong.
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First, re your situation, can you ask for a room change away from the laundry room?
I know it doesn't help you much in reality but you should know that others like me know what you are experiencing and we fear finding ourselves in that situation ourselves in the future. People who need assisted living and nursing homes need to be treated with respect and dignity. I often wonder if those who work in and run those places and who do not respect their employers (which is what residents are, employers since they would not have jobs without someone needing to reside there) ever think that some day they might find themselves in that situation. As a family member who tries to advocate, I know the pitfalls, b/c this industry is not highly regulated the way it should be. To me the only solution is for family members and residents like you to join together to resolve issues with management. But when family members are no where to be found it is hard. It might be small comfort for you to know that there are organizations out there trying to change things. One resouce you might want to review is this one:
History

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The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care was formed as NCCNHR (National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform) in 1975 because of public concern about substandard care in nursing homes. The Consumer Voice is the outgrowth of work first achieved by advocates working for Ralph Nader and later for the National Gray Panthers. Elma Holder, NCCNHR founder, was working with The Long-Term Care Action Project of the Gray Panthers when she organized a group meeting of advocates from across the country to attend a nursing home industry conference in Washington, DC. At that meeting, representatives of 12 citizen action groups spoke collectively to the industry about the need for serious reform in nursing home conditions. The consumer attendees were inspired to develop a platform of common concerns and motivated to form a new organization to represent the consumer voice at the national level. Most of the original members had witnessed and endured personal experiences with substandard nursing home conditions
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Does your Assisted Living have a Board of Directors? If you can't get anywhere with requests to the management or director of the place, can you send an email to the Board? Requesting that the laundry not be operating all night is in no way unreasonable!
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