• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Why don't Nursing Homes have lounges for libations and relaxation?

Magna

Magna

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Why don't Nursing Homes have lounge areas where residents can enjoy a cocktail or two in the evenings? Or in places where it's legal, a toke as well? Music familiar to residents playing in the background? Dimmer more relaxing lighting?

Yes, there might be some residents that can't or shouldn't partake due to potential issues with their meds, but that's not everyone.

Seems actually criminal, no?
 
I actually worked as bartending in a retirement home. We also had a grand piano, and we had entertainment scheduled weekly in the bar/lounge area. Which consisted of chairs being brought in as needed. PR events were staged there, and it took the overflow of holiday buffet clients and their families. l made frozen drinks, typical bar drinks including martinis, and l came up with holiday drinks to promote. Our dining room was pretty big, we usually had about 4 servers on that floor during meals. So you do find it in the more exclusive homes. The mini homes that go for about 7,000 a month in this facility usually consisted of one bedroom, one living room, small kitchen, sized way down. And you were allowed one pet. There was a small gym, a hairdresser and a game room on the second floor. There was a huge nurse's section parallel the dining room, where some residents would get their meds. And yes, l had to cut off one lady, who nobody wanted her to sit at their table due to her drinking. There was a doctor kicked out of the dining room due to his potty mouth. Very interesting dynamics.
 
^ Overall, that sounds much better than Nursing Homes in our area where there's nothing like that at all. Other than some arts and crafts projects, bingo and other such activities there are no activities that adults are otherwise free to choose to partake in.
 
Magna said:
Why don't Nursing Homes have lounge areas where residents can enjoy a cocktail or two in the evenings? Or in places where it's legal, a toke as well? Music familiar to residents playing in the background? Dimmer more relaxing lighting?
Click to expand...
It would add to the number of issues the staff have to police. Sad, but true.
 
The nursing homes I have been in (for work) seem to struggle to meet the most basic needs of the residents - lacking enough help for proper bathing, feeding, and toileting. While I don’t blame the staff directly, the sheer mismanagement of resources and the lack of basic safety and hygiene for residents is appalling. The nursing homes I have seen have much more dire things to improve before they start considering a nice place for drinks and a smoke.

Disclaimer: I have never been in a nursing home for affluent people.
 
Rodafina said:
The nursing homes I have been in (for work) seem to struggle to meet the most basic needs of the residents - lacking enough help for proper bathing, feeding, and toileting. While I don’t blame the staff directly, the sheer mismanagement of resources and the lack of basic safety and hygiene for residents is appalling. The nursing homes I have seen have much more dire things to improve before they start considering a nice place for drinks and a smoke.

Disclaimer: I have never been in a nursing home for affluent people.
Click to expand...
It really is a sad state of affairs all around.
 
Where I live, I've found the difference is in what type of institute you are looking at.
The Nursing Homes, as we call them, are a medical type of housing for those who are chronically ill and in need of daily help to do most anything.
They are usually two people to the room and are dependent on someone to bathe, help with eating and medical assistance such as tube feeding, medications and walking devices.

The type of housing we call Assisted Living or Independent Senior Living places usually do have a Happy Hour lounge for the residents. These people usually do not require the medical assistance that is needed in a nursing home setting.
They may need walkers, scooters, or even wheelchairs to go places and transportation is provided for them, but they aren't in need of daily nursing care.

The really affluent Assisted Living places can be around $10,000 per month. This includes nice dining and the lounge for Happy Hours and parties.
So, basically, it depends on the degree of help you need and if it is more of a medical unit as to the lounge provided.

Take a look at what money can buy for an Assisted Living Facility:

_0013_palace-at-weston_Lobby-A.webp

The Nursing Homes are a truly sad situation though.
 
Are you out of your cotton pickin' mind? Booze and memory care don't mix, honey. Sheesh, those poor CNAs already have too much on their plates.

1741339494770.webp

And this place? Oh heck no! Some poor gaffer would fall asleep on a recliner and wake up, freaking out thinking he's about to meet St. Peter.
 
State laws. In Pennsylvania, any state run group home or facility must not allow the residents to consume or have alcohol or any sexual content or media or sexual contact with each other. I remember being in a group home and each resident had a day that they were assigned to cook and prepare a meal for everyone and I had wanted to cook a recipe that I thought sounded good but was told to choose something else because white wine was one of the ingredients. And two residents in the house were clearly having a sexual relationship with each other when the guidelines each of us were given clearly stated that any type of physical contact with other residents is strictly forbidden. We weren’t allowed to hug each other. State laws are why there are restrictions on some things.
 
Rodafina said:
The nursing homes I have been in (for work) seem to struggle to meet the most basic needs of the residents - lacking enough help for proper bathing, feeding, and toileting. While I don’t blame the staff directly, the sheer mismanagement of resources and the lack of basic safety and hygiene for residents is appalling. The nursing homes I have seen have much more dire things to improve before they start considering a nice place for drinks and a smoke.

Disclaimer: I have never been in a nursing home for affluent people.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Now factor in fiscal limitations of such places....and voila!

This would well describe the life of my grandfather in his final years. In a place where "recreation" was to wheel him out into the hallways with other residents and leave them there for hours on end. Dressed often in other resident's clothing with many of his own possessions in the hands of others.

A bitter reason why my mother sought so aggressively to die in her own bed rather than live under such conditions in her remaining years. And a basic reason why I chose to give up four years of my life as her primary caregiver.

For some of us, the term "nursing home" has a very different connotation.

Assisted Living? Nice, if you can truly afford it.
 
Last edited:
I used to work in a care home for elderly people, and the conditions there weren't bad at all, considering the NHS cuts.

I just don't agree with street drugs in care homes. I hate drugs, even though I don't do drugs they've still affected me negatively in some way. I was bullied online by drug-addicts (on the spectrum) because they'd get high then post nasty things on the forum because they were too high to know what they were doing, and the reason I'm poor is because a lot of my savings funded my partner's son who is a drug-addict. Well, not directly, but you could still say that. I didn't want it to, but my partner found it hard to say no whenever he asked for money, so he'd give money to his son then we had to dig into my savings to pay our bills. So, yeah, drugs have caused me a lot of stress in my life and I hate them.
I've got no time for people who love drugs (street drugs I'm talking about), sorry if it's offensive but I should be allowed to express my opinion on something that is harmful to the body (unless it's medicinal but I'm not talking about that) and can cause crime and grief for others and is illegal (yes, even weed is still illegal in the UK).

Sorry but I am squeaky clean when it comes to drugs.
 
A reasonable explanation of why recreational drugs and nursing homes are a bad combination.
Noting the source as a legal firm ultimately pointing out the vulnerabilities to litigation over such liability concerns. Especially given the tight overhead costs of such facilities not catering to the wealthy.

With such potential exposures inevitably driving up the costs of liability insurance for carriers willing to accept the risk. Offset no doubt by much higher costs to patients. All further compounded by the ADA and individual state regulations which in effect may prohibit discrimination of potential patients with substance abuse problems.

Where egress of the building and mobility of patients becomes paramount. The last thing insurers want under such circumstances is the possibility of temporary impairment that negatively impacts such fundamental considerations of nursing homes.

I was professionally trained to underwrite such an exposure. Luckily I never had to.

A "lose-lose" proposition for all parties involved to condone drug use on the premises. IMO.

How Does Substance Abuse Affect Nursing Home Patients? - Prince Law Firm
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom