A recent Denver news story has shocked many caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and various forms of dementia. A serious incident with a fatality occurred between two residents living with Alzheimer’s while under the care of a corporate owned and managed memory care facility. Sadly, this is not surprising to many elder care advocates based on the current regulations for assisted living and especially memory care. In Colorado and other states there is not a required ratio for qualified care professionals to residents. Each community can determine how many staff they want to employ during a shift based on their subjective view of meeting the needs of the residents. Specific to this news story, both residents shared the same room even though it was known and documented previously by the care facility that there were serious physical and verbal altercations between the residents and no apparent effective corrective action was taken by the corporate care facility. The resulting outcome was traumatic with serious legal implications.

Stay tuned to your local news resource in Colorado for more information on this specific case as it develops. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is conducting their investigation. For families in search of care facilities with strong reputations regarding their care environment please contact the Ombudsman office from the Area Agency on Aging which is part of the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Once a loved one is admitted to a community, please be vigilant on managing their care or hire an advocate to monitor the quality of care being provided.

http://www.9news.com/story/news/crime/2015/02/24/assisted-living-home-death/23935225/