Stacey Eisenberg was 13 when she started working in senior care. Before that, she grew up around it, in the nursing home where her mother worked. Today she is co-owner of A Place At Home – North Austin, and earlier this week we got news we are proud to share.
I hear a version of this question almost every week from families in Round Rock and North Austin who’ve just gotten a loved one home from the hospital: “She’s got home health coming, so we should be covered, right?” I understand exactly why people think that. The words sound similar.
Somewhere in the middle of a recovery, usually around week three or four, I’ve watched the same thing happen to a lot of families. The medical milestones are being hit. The wound is healing. The PT exercises are getting done. By every clinical measure, things are going fine. And
The first fall almost always gets explained away. The rug was bunched up. He was tired. She stood up too fast. Everyone has a reason, and the reason is usually believable, because it’s usually at least partly true. The second fall is where I want families to stop and
Ask any case manager what keeps them up at night and most of them will tell you some version of the same thing: it’s not the discharge plan they wrote. It’s everything that was supposed to happen after the discharge plan was handed over, and didn’t. The follow-up appointment that
David wants specifics. I’ve learned this over enough conversations with sons and daughters trying to plan their parent’s recovery: vague reassurance doesn’t help. “We’ll take good care of them” means nothing if you don’t know what the actual recovery looks like for the specific thing your parent went through.
The discharge nurse hands you a folder. It has a follow-up appointment card, a list of medications with new dosages, and a sheet of paper that says “activity as tolerated.” Everyone shakes hands. Your dad is wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair he won’t need by next week,
Your mother-in-law is 84. She’s had a hard year. And when you gently suggested she at least go look at a few assisted living apartments, just to see what’s out there, she told you she’ll know when the time is right. Meanwhile, she’s calling more. Asking for help with things
Most people who contact us have done their research. They’ve read about dementia. They know what stage their parents are in. They have questions about accountability, caregiver consistency, and what happens if something goes wrong. What they don’t always know is what actually happens after they make the call. That’s