re: How does one pick a skilled nursing/rehab facility for an elderly parent?

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I work at the Oaks of Louisiana

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Thanks, dek. I am aware of this facility. Have driven past it many times.

My problem is that I live 5 hours away. My father (80's) has worn himself out taking care of my mom, and now that she is post-heart attack and unable to care for herself, I absolutely need to lock down a place. We don't have a discharge from the hospital yet, but it's coming.

You pray

Even the best have under paid workers who don't care. Knew an OT baller who was paying a shite load of money for one of the top elderly care places and they like all of them, have shite workers who do not care. He had to put a camera in her room, hidden, then in plain sight, so they got the message. Lots of inner city, useless care givers who treat the elderly like crap. Majority of it. Is because the homes refuse to put out more money for better help, so you get shaniqua and Antoinette, who could give 2 shits about the patients.

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Is because the homes refuse to put out more money for better help, so you get shaniqua and Antoinette, who could give

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in Louisiana absolutely…but I can tell you that in many other places it isn’t like that at all. Just another of many dozens of issues living in a shithole state taxes you with

No joke, the absolute most important people in the building are the CNAs. And not to be racist or whatever, but they're almost always black or Hispanic. It's the worst position in a facility, worst pay but by far the biggest impact. If they don't care and are retained, no one there cares.

For rehab to home or for long term care?

This is absolutely true, a great or shutty team of CNA’s really determine the success or failure of the building

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I currently work at a nursing home. When I was hired here, the executive director was the one who actually wrote the textbook you would study from if you want to take your test to get your nursing home license to run one.

Best advice I can give you is what he told me the day he interviewed me. When touring a nursing home, as you walk from the front to the back, pay attention to the smell.

Obviously if you smell urine and bad smells throughout the entire building, stay away from it. If all you smell throughout the entire facility is cleaning products, stay away from it because they are masking problems.

For the most part, it should be like your house, where you don’t smell anything. I’m not talking like smelling something in front of one room where someone had an accident, but the facility is a whole


There are some really good ones and some really bad ones, do your homework before you put your loved one in one. Also go online to the state surveys, and look at their rankings. They’re ranked by a star rating, one through five, with five being the highest. This is not yelp scores or something like that, it’s based off of state inspection, surveys, and such. Do your homework before you put a loved one in a nursing home.

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This is great advice.

We're trying to find another place for a relative. The home he's in is simply not good and the options are limited.

Because the attention is bad, my relative has his own sitters for most of the day and up until about 11 pm, so he's paying for the nursing home and the sitters.

Once you do find a place, go often and at different times of the day. When they figure out your routine, they will try to cover up any insufficiencies . If there are other family members or friends, have them visit as well. Residents with more visitors get better treatment.

If you come across residents who have their faculties, talk with them about the places you are considering. You'd be surprised at what information they are willing to share.