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Acknowledgment of Disclosures and Authorization
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
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Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
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My husband occasionally finds and decides to take meds he is not supposed to. Where do I hide the prescription drugs and still have access to them every day?
My sister and I faced the same problem. We purchased a heavy duty tool box with two tiers (morning meds / evening meds), and lock both tiers with Briggs or Master Locks. We take out meds for each day, never more, and place them in the daily pill dispenser. That way, daddy felt he was somewhat in control, but we knew we had him totally protected. We hid the box ... minor inconvenience for us, but nothing compared to the worry we had when he was waking up at midnight and took his morning pills, then waking up at 4 and again at 7ish and thinking he hadn't taken his morning pills yet! You have to protect them from themselves.
I have a similar problem for the guy I'm grandpa-sitting... Sometimes he forgets he's been given his pill, so goes looking for them to take another. I try to keep them out of sight, but he knows where they usually are & will go to great lengths to find them. There's nowhere to lock them up. I thought about finding candy that looks alike, so he can take as many as he wants.
The family & other caregiver don't even try to hide meds from him. For example, I always put the laxative on the highest shelf in the kitchen, behind a cabinet door, because he's short & I'm tall & he can't get to it... because if he can he'll take several doses in a day (he forgets that he's poo'd recently), then spend the next couple days messing his pants repeatedly, which is a pain for the caregivers too (showers, changing clothes, gross laundry).
But again, the family & other caregiver keep putting it on the counter where he can get to it! Very frustrating.
I agree with getting a lockbox & putting it someplace the patient can't get to it. If that has to be in the basement (because they can't go downstairs), fine. Or in the car (but not in hot weather). Be sure it has a cable to attach to the car (frame, or the trunk latch loop, or part of the seat frame), or something solid that's attached to the house, so the person can't move it somewhere & work on it in secret.
For my personal meds, the really interesting ones with street value (which I rarely take anyway) are in my safe with my non-carry pistols & important papers.
There are some high tech pill boxes that automaticlly dispense only when it is time. That way the box would be the demon and not you at least :-), but maybe he could even learn to trust the thing and might like the little bit of independence from caregiver telling him everything. E-pill is one, and you can Google automatic locking pill dispensers for more.
I have to say this funny thing. When my dad was alive, he commonly stole pain pills from my mother and put them in his pocket. My mother found them commonly when doing laundry and told me about it. After a week or so, I asked my mother what she had figured out what to do. She told me that she found an answer. "I cut holes in his pockets and they just fall to the floor." Oh,,,,,that sounds like a good plan, indeed.....
Re: the Philips device with a $49/month charge. No way. Completely too expensive, and NOT necessary to rent something you can OWN. Do the math-- $49 a month is about 3 or 4 times more than buying it. Or just get a lock box. Or hide the medications in maxi-pad box (eh, maybe not, men with dementia might have forgotten the taboo).
I'm afraid I don't appreciate this "problem." If I want to hide something from my dementia husband, I hide it and there is no way he can ever find it. Why is a hiding place such a problem?
Frankly, If someone locked up my meds and I wanted them, I would destroy the container. Fortunately, I don't take any meds. What I would suggest is one of those fire proof safes. I wouldn't be able to open that and neither would he. Hide it someplace that you frequently go and he seldom goes - maybe the laundry room?? Don't be seen bringing meds out of that room. Fix them up while he's sleeping or while you're making wash day noises - like running the dryer. My husband would never find anything in the laundry room. It's like the old joke, "honey where do we keep the dishwasher." If he is someone that does laundry, then you will have to think of something else.
You go to Target and you buy a safe with a combination and you put all of his medications inside and you give them to him when he needs them. It is easier if you fill the plastic boxes once a week and then they are ready when needed.
I will never forget the day my mother plopped down in front of me holding all the bottles of her medication...to take them, when she had already been given all her meds. If she had taken these and I was unaware I do not know what would have happened but it scared the crap out of me!
Do it fast and stand your ground if he gets angry with you.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
Sometimes he forgets he's been given his pill, so goes looking for them to take another. I try to keep them out of sight, but he knows where they usually are & will go to great lengths to find them. There's nowhere to lock them up.
I thought about finding candy that looks alike, so he can take as many as he wants.
The family & other caregiver don't even try to hide meds from him.
For example, I always put the laxative on the highest shelf in the kitchen, behind a cabinet door, because he's short & I'm tall & he can't get to it...
because if he can he'll take several doses in a day (he forgets that he's poo'd recently), then spend the next couple days messing his pants repeatedly, which is a pain for the caregivers too (showers, changing clothes, gross laundry).
But again, the family & other caregiver keep putting it on the counter where he can get to it! Very frustrating.
If that has to be in the basement (because they can't go downstairs), fine.
Or in the car (but not in hot weather).
Be sure it has a cable to attach to the car (frame, or the trunk latch loop, or part of the seat frame), or something solid that's attached to the house, so the person can't move it somewhere & work on it in secret.
For my personal meds, the really interesting ones with street value (which I rarely take anyway) are in my safe with my non-carry pistols & important papers.
I will never forget the day my mother plopped down in front of me holding all the bottles of her medication...to take them, when she had already been given all her meds. If she had taken these and I was unaware I do not know what would have happened but it scared the crap out of me!
Do it fast and stand your ground if he gets angry with you.