By Jordan Rau
They
found Bonnie Walker in a pond behind her assisted living facility in
South Carolina. There were puncture wounds on her ear, her temple, her
jaw and her cheeks.
Her pacemaker was inside one of the alligators that lived in the pond.
Like
four in 10 residents in assisted living facilities, Ms. Walker, 90,
suffered from dementia. Shortly after midnight one day in July 2016, she
slipped out of her facility, Brookdale Charleston, as she had done a
few days before. This time, no one noticed her missing for seven hours.
“No one should have to pass away that way,” her granddaughter Stephanie Weaver said.
Assisted
living facilities were originally designed for people who were largely
independent but required help bathing, eating or other daily tasks.
Unlike nursing homes, the facilities generally do not provide skilled
medical care or therapy, and stays are not paid for by Medicare or
Medicaid.
Dementia care is the
fastest-growing segment of assisted living. But as these residences
market themselves to people with Alzheimer’s and other types of
dementia, facilities across the country are straining to deliver on
their promises of security and attentive care, according to a Kaiser
Health News analysis of inspection records in the three most populous
states.
In
California, 45 percent of assisted living facilities have violated one
or more state dementia regulations during the last five years. Three of
the 12 most common California citations in 2017 were related to dementia care.
In
Florida, one in every 11 assisted living facilities has been cited
since 2013 for not meeting state rules designed to prevent residents
from wandering away.
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Source: The New York Times
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