Nursing Home Director Charged In Queens,NY For Not Reporting Dementia Patient Missing For Four Days

Juliet Clifford,a Director of a Nursing Home in Queens,NY was arrested Saturday June 8 2013 for not reporting a dementia patient missing from her facility on June 26th.

It was not reported until June 30th to police that  74 year old Alan Frazier had been missing. According to the report, when asked what happen, Clifford lies to police stating that Frazier left on his own, against the advice of medical staffing. Now I don't know which side of the bed Ms Clifford woke up on, but it's not up to a patient with dementia to make decision on their own.

There was absolutely no reason for her to neglect her responsibilities in reporting this. Patients walk out of homes all the time, but they are mostly caught as they are leaving. But to go home night after night knowing that an elderly man,not in his right mind, is out on the street where he could walk in front of a car and not report it is just shameful.

I was a caregiver for my dad for years and this is one of the reason we as a family didn't put my father in a nursing home.We felt that he needed attention 24/7 and we all know that there is just not enough staff members to be one on one with a patient all day, unless they are hired by family to do so.

Not only is this Ms Clifford fault, it's also her staff under her.Each CNA in a nursing home have their own patient to take care of. There are also Registered Nurses there that CNAs have to report too.The question is, how long did it take his care provider to know he was missing and report it to a senior staff member? I know Ms Clifford is the person that covered this up by lying to police, but the D.A. in this case should not stop with her. They need to go after everyone who knew this man was missing and failed to report it.

Let's open up a discussion in the comment section.Do you believe there should be more staff members charged in this case if they knew the man had been missing and failed to report it?

Testing For Dementia. Does Dementia Run In Your Family?

As age creeps upon us and memory loss becomes more frequent, we believe it to be some form of dementia. Now even though this may be the case, you never will know unless the proper test for dementia is done.

Now, I say proper test because there are many forms of dementia, with Alzheimer’s being the leading cause. But there are some symptoms of dementia that are reversible if caught early. For example, did you know depression can be a form of dementia. When we think of depression, it really doesn’t cross our mind that it could give symptoms of dementia or short term memory loss.  Now with early intervention this can be effectively treated and even reversed. So it’s very important that when tested we get the right diagnosis in order to get the right medication.

So, when is the right time to get tested for dementia? I ask this question because through research I have found that a person can have dementia 20 years before the first symptom ever show up. That means brain cells are being damaged or dying slowly every year due to some form of dementia. Since there is no cure for these symptoms would it benefit us to know at age 40 instead of when we get our first symptom around 60?

Alzheimer’s Disease, which is the leading cause of dementia, runs heavy in my family on my father side. My father, his dad(my grandfather), and three of his brothers all had Alzheimer’s Disease. I was the caregiver to both my father and my grandfather, so I witnessed  first hand the destruction of it as it slowly took away their abilities to function.

Now I’m at the point wondering if I could be next. Since doctors can see if brain cells are being damaged or dying due to some form of dementia, would it benefit me to know about it 15-20 years before any symptoms may appear.

Doctors believe that knowing before hand could cause more damage to a person. Stress and depression are factors they believe could hurt a person .Even though this may be right, isn’t it our right to know? Now I know they wouldn’t be able to treat anything until they are sure which dementia you have, so I’m not writing this blog for the medical aspect, but wondering from those who have witness this disease first hand, would you like to know this is coming down the road years before the first symptom ever appear.

I want to be tested in the next couple years and maybe every three years after that to see if I’m developing this condition. I would like to know the opinions of those close to this disease, so please leave a comment below.

Dementia Caregiver

Dementia is an umbrella term for several symptoms that is related to a decline in thinking. These symptoms are, but limited too, a gradual loss of memory, loss of language skills, and the ability to perform daily routine tasks.

Now being a caregiver can really take a toll on a person physically and mentally. I think most caregivers, including myself, get into this because a family member has some form of dimentia .

I was a caregiver twice, both for family members suffering from dimentia. My grandfather had it in the late 80's, and my father had it from the late 90's until his passing in 2012.

Looking back on my experience, there is one thing that always sticks out in my mind and that is how little I knew about dementia. My main goal was keeping them clean and fed, plus doing the little things that could make their life a little better.

As the stages progressed, you feel helpless because that is when a lot of medical problems occur and because you are not informed about the disease you have no idea what to expect. I truly believe that if you are to be an effective family caregiver, then it will be important that you learn about the different symptoms so you can be somewhat educated on them when they occur.

Learning how to communicate can also be a challenge. It goes far beyond words as the disease moves along. Being able to read body language, and deciphering statements because they can no longer express themselves will take time.It will take patience because there will be several times when you will just get frustrated about the whole thing.

My goal for this particular article is to just encourage caregivers to not just join caregivers support groups, which also is very important, but get educated all you can about the different types of dementia.

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