Residents roaming in care home

[Nomad86]

I have a friend who lives in a care home, she's in her nineties but still sharp as a needle. She is registered blind however.

Ever since she moved in two years ago, various residents have been coming into her room uninvited during the night. For context, almost all other residents have some degree of dementia. As my friend's sight is so poor, these people are frightening to wake up to in the middle of the night, particularly when they come and sit on her bed.

There is a lock on the door but she can't pick herself in at night as she needs staff to help her into bed. The staff say it's against the rules to lock residents in. She has no door on her en suite bathroom so if she happens to be using the loo when one of these people walk in, she'd be in full view.

I'm really concerned about her safety but have no idea what to do. She's reluctant to take it any further and I'm not family so I doubt they'd listen to me. I've never known anyone in a care home before, is this sort of thing normal? She pays tens of thousands a year and doesn't even have basic security. I know little about dementia if I'm honest and whilst it must be challenging making sure that residents stay put at night, my friend is entitled to feel safe, surely?

Any advice I can pass on to her would be greatly appreciated!

This happened to my gran and I can’t remember how my mum resolved it. I know she read them the riot act about safeguarding.

I think some sort of alarm/buzzer was put on the door which sounded in the office....not sure if it was on grans door or the door of the people/person who wondered about. Because they’re also not safeguarding the person with dementia if they don’t know if that person is wondering.

They should listen to you as a concerned friend especially if nomfamily. You could also contact or threaten to contact the CQC about it who are the inspecting body?

When I was looking at a care home for an elderly relative, the staff pointed out pads on the floor by the beds that raised an alarm to the night staff if that resident got out of bed. Maybe the home your friend is in should investigate those?

Found THIS on google.

Am sure there must be cheaper ones, bulk buy etc.

Wander not wonder. I wonder at my autocorrect sometimes!

Would she be able to manage in sheltered housing instead OP? Where her meals could be delivered too?

It's completely unacceptable: if she doesn't want to complain on her own behalf that's fine but residents with dementia shouldn't be wandering around in the middle of the night without the staff chasing after them PDQ - it's not safe for them let alone the other residents. If she doesn't want to complain then she (or you) could present it as a 'concern' sounds much less challenging. "I am a bit concerned that xxx said yyy appeared in her bedroom again last night, she was frightened...".

For context, DH is a paramedic, and got called to an assault in a care home where resident A had wandered into Resident B's room and attacked Resident B with a walking stick thinking Resident B was an intruder.

Unfortunately this is very common. I regularly visit care homes with my job and I am often encountering people wandering in and out of eachothers rooms, trying on other people’s clothes and hats, fiddling with their belongings.
It is easier when all involved have dementia as no one seems to even register it as an issue, but for someone who has some cognitive ability I can see how scary it would be. Speak to the staff, if not then I think a sheltered housing environment would be better suited.

This is pretty normal in a care home. My mum had dementia and would wander around all day long with a doll in her arms, looking for her mother. That was until she wandered into a room of a resident who didn't have dementia he battered her and left her lying on the floor.
Ask about an alert mat. Staff will know who is wandered about when the alarm goes off.

This seems really odd to me, dementia sufferers normally have their own wards so to speak and other elderly residents their own. That way they don't mix or cross paths. It's really normal for dementia sufferers to do this

Moominfan
In my mum's home elderly and Infirm and dementia patients were together on the same floor.

This is super common unfortunately and completely unacceptable. The same happened to my HD's granny. My aunt made a stink and it stopped, how I don't know.
But as you're not in a position to raise a stink I'm unsure what to advise. All part of the hideous indignities of growing infirm. No one seems to give a shit.

This happened to my mum who is also blind. I was getting complaints from the managers that my mum was wandering around the corridors in her nightie, drunk and confused. I turned it around to them allowing a woman (a resident) they knew to be an alcoholic to walk into my mum's flat and encourage my mum to drink whisky so that this woman could then help herself to my mum's whisky supplies. My mum couldn't manage to get herself a drink, it was usually my brother who poured her a glass at night. I told them that they weren't protecting my mum, a vulnerable blind woman. They very quickly stopped complaining about my mum and realised that they were at fault and took steps to alleviate the problem.
Sadly my mum is much further on now and is living in a nursing home and has Alzheimer's and is immobile and bedridden - but it's exactly why she is on the ward for those who are aren't the walking residents as she gets alarmed if people come into her room

Would a stair gate across her doorway work? I might be wrong but I assume most dementia patients would not be have the cognition and dexterity to open that, whereas the staff could.

Very common , I’m talking nhs funded homes.
Fil was in 3 different ones.
In one particular, residents walked around all day/pm long. Don’t know about in the night
They would be things missing from fil room, sometimes we’d go and some one would be in his bed. Men and women on the same floor.
Fil had Dementia, whilst in one home he was left for hours in the same chair.
One day we went and his feet were bandaged up, I ask why
Pressure sores from the bed.
Within months he was diagnosed with non graded pressure sore in hospital, I asked the sister what this meant. Off the scale!!! The worse.

He never went back there, if he hadn’t gone in there in the first place(his wife couldn’t cope) I doubt he’d of gone down hill so fast and have disgusting pressure sores.

He then went into a nursing home, by now he was bedridden, and drastically worse. Lasted 3 mths before he pasted.

From what I have seen of 3 places there is no way I will willing go into one.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'm going to ask them for a pressure mat.

The pressure alert mats would be for the people who wander, you can suggest this to the manager. A stair gate would be an obstruction so would not be considered. I'd write to the c.q.c. and the home manager, copy in adult social services, to say her safety is being compromised and the home need to sort it out or find alternative accommodation. If she's pretty independent she might manage in a residential home which is also cheaper.