No Stupid Questions

If you're not ready to take the step to a skilled nursing facility or memory care, there are adult day care programs that can care for them during the day while you are at work and you can get home nursing services a couple times a week for medication checks and things like wound care.

Physical therapy and occupational therapy are also good ideas to look into for the balance and instability issues as old age and de-conditioning can contribute to that a lot.

As someone else suggested, a medication list review to minimize the pill burden and eliminate drug interactions and side effects can be very helpful. All of this can be started with a visit to his primary care physician for referrals for PT/OT, home nursing, medication review, and caregiver respite things like the adult daycare. Just make sure to schedule a 30 to 60 minute appointment to make sure there's enough time to go over everything.

Note: for the medication review, don't be alarmed if the physician takes him off of things like blood pressure or cholesterol medications because those are more aimed at preventing complications, so if someone is approaching the end of their life anyways, there really isn't anything to "prevent" per se.

1. I’d want a list of all the medicine he is taking to see if drug interactions are causing him to feel dizzy or have balance issues for example. 2. If money were no object I’d assemble an in-home care team. 3. Each care facility is different and doing research into their own staffing minimums would be a great start. Many often cater to the adult children’s idea of a good place to live, not what the older adult has in mind (ie: sustained independence and person-centered care). 4. Regardless it’s difficult and caregiver burnout is a real thing. Take care of yourself.

I need a dnr/dni btw.

I’d never come across Do Not Intubate before, and in looking it up, I discovered Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST), which I’d also never knew of. Directory of [US state] POLST Programs

This is the reason i reckon that really old people should be allowed to do whatever the hell drugs they want.

Sir, here's your morphine button. Go nuts.

On a helpful note. IMHO a care facility is the best choice, at least in my country they're OK.

There are no clean solutions to this. No matter what you do, it gets pretty dark pretty quick. You could stay in the moral gray area or dive into some really dark topics.

Something that's an option is I'm seeing eco skeletons on the market. It's still expensive at $900 but if that means you can give your loved one the ability to walk without risk and hospital visits that could be a way to go. Might even be covered with some insurance. Just leave a note written by them explaining in simple terms why they are wearing those weird things.

Adult airbag vest:

There are mixed reviews on these. Sometime they work, and sometimes they don't. Its not a silver bullet. Its not perfection, but it may be better than nothing.