A Visit to Hope Haven

I had a nice surprise on Saturday.  I received a call from Gladys at Hope Haven.  Her schedule had cleared out enough for her to invite my mom and me for a visit.  We did visit and overall, my experience was very positive and I enjoyed the visit.

Gladys recently bought the new facility and is still in the process of setting up Hope Haven for more residents.  She needs to feel the staff is stable, complete and get responses to the required paperwork from the State of Alaska in order to have Medicaid Waiver residents, and add any features she thinks the facility needs, such as an automated stair chair.  Although it is a 10 bed facility, she has been very firm about not taking more residents than what she feels she can serve well.

I met three of the four residents mentioned on Saturday.  There were two rooms that could be used, one on the ground floor and one on the second floor.  Mom would need to be on the first floor since there is no elevator or stair chair.  We visited with the residents while Jo, the on-duty attendant fussed over us all and continually checked on those not in the common room.  Gladys returned with supplies while we watched TV and Mom sipped tea.  [As an aside, I noticed that both Jo and Sarah, another attendant, stressed that they made no executive decisions and all serious enquires needed to be directed to Gladys.]    So, impressions ...

The facility was originally an FRA (Fairbanks Resource Agency) building and as such is very spacious.  In that regard it is like night and day compared to the other licensed homes I visited.  There are four separate living areas in the building, one of which is occupied by Gladys herself.  On the bottom floor there are two apartments, one for women and one for men.  To the back of the first floor is the common area and what might have served as the break room when it was run by FRA, but I can't say for sure.  In the common room is an adequate kitchen, a nice dining table, several couches, a coffee table and the TV.  The windows face south, but the curtains were pulled against the chill on the overcast day.  Two residents that were sitting there when we arrived had blankets on their legs and walkers near at hand so they could move about if desired.

There is one resident of the man's apartment and I did not see him the entire time I was there.  I was told that typically all residents take naps in the afternoon, but today was pedicure day and the ladies stayed up to participate in the activity.  Jo had a nice array of colors and supplies for the event.  Gladys plans many stimulating activities within the home for the residents and they are planning a dinner out and a limo ride for Christmas.

There are two common areas for each resident.  The first floor woman's apartment had a large living area with a couch, chair, artificial plants, etageres and a dining table.  I was told that the kitchen was not to be used.  That made me laugh inwardly as it is certain my mother wouldn't be using it if she became a resident and most likely would never know it was there.  It was back around a wall.  Gladys keeps this as a quiet area for reading or resting, so there is no television in that room.

My impression of the apartment living room was that it was dark and although clean and modern, the hues and lighting made it seem drab.  I think the lighting is not probably as bright as is needed for elders and the colors and hues are not as cheery as they could be.  Those factors contributed to it not being as inviting as the common room at her former place on Senate Loop.  In any case, the residents do not use it much.  They tend to walk right through to the common area.  We all tend to think of our living area as the region around where we eat and I think that, plus the lighting and TV may contribute to it being more attractive for the current residents.

I was shown the individual rooms and the bathroom for the woman's apartment.  They are both very nice.  The bedroom is big enough for a double bed, chair and dresser with a closet bigger than what Mom has now.  The bathroom is very functional with a wonderful floor level shower, shower chair and a toilet with a raised seat.  Oddly, this is the only residence where I smelled urine in the bathroom (odd because of how clean it was otherwise).  I do understand how hard it is to keep an elder's bathroom perfectly sanitary at all times, and it made me think about how large the facility was and how challenging it would be to not only meet the needs of the residents, but keep it clean at all times.  In order to expand to 10 beds, Gladys has her work cut out for her finding people who are as dedicated to elders and those needing assistance as she is.

When Gladys returned, we sat and visited and she concentrated on Mom.  My mother's reactions to things could be based on whether she was willing to drink her tea or not.  When we first got there, she was offered tea; she didn't want any.  Then she got more relaxed and started looking around; we offered tea again and she did want it.  When Gladys came and spoke to her; she didn't want any tea.  She could not respond to many of Gladys' questions but did have some spirited comebacks, which are the delight of all of Mom's caregivers.  Gladys asked her if she was ready to move to a home and my mother said, as you would expect, no.  Gladys then acknowledged that was probably not a good question since who was ever ready?  But, then she made it as clear as she possibly could to Mom that she would only live there if she wanted to be there.  It had to be this way because it was hard on everyone if a resident wasn't' happy.

My mom was a little confused about the intent at first.  She was able to finally explain what she meant by referring to the EXIT sign as what she would do if she came here.  I realized she was thinking it was like FRA.  But I told her it was a place to live, not just visit during the day.  At this point Mom definitely was done with her tea and ready to go home.

Emotionally, I think it could be a good place for Mom.  Physically,  I wonder if it too large compared to her living and day situation now.  The common room is farther away from the bedrooms than anything Mom now negotiates.  Her range could increase with a walker, but I would have to trust that she would not become confused about where to go to be with others.  The other thing I wondered about was the ability of the care taker to monitor Mom's toilet use.  For example, yesterday morning, I found Mom's pull up in the trash completely soiled.  Her PJ bottoms where rung out on the bed and she was sleeping in her bed without anything below her waist.  An immediate shower was necessary as well as cleaning the sheets.

Then too, even though the other residents appeared to be suffering from dementia, it appeared to me that Mom was in a more dependent state.   That may be because we are always marshaling her off to go to FRA and FRA is always providing the next activity; she rarely defines her own activities.   She does so on the weekends, but her downstairs studio apartment is much smaller than Hope Haven and she can see all she needs from any vantage point.

So, those are the two concerns I have about her fitting in.

We are talking about having Mom stay there for a temporary visit when we take a short break.  If Mom does go to Hope Haven, she would be there on trial basis for the first month or so.  We will need to keep her apartment ready for her return in case it is not workable for her.