Special Care Unit

     Knapp Haven Nursing Home has developed a unit for residents suffering from dementia disorders or whose behavior represents a need for special programming.

     The purpose of this unit is to provide a safe, consistent, loving, secure yet stimulating environment for those residents.

     The needs identified by a multidisciplinary team included: 1) better supervision of the residents who wander; 2) more staff time for withdrawn and depressed residents; 3) a more tolerant atmosphere for residents exhibiting confused behavior; 4) provision for additional activites designed for more one-on-one interaction; 5) consistent nursing care approaches geared to maintaining optimum functioning.

    To meet the needs, the facility established one resident wing to specifically care for residents who exhibited dementia disorders or emotional/disruptive behavior.  This unit was expanded in the fall of 1990 to provide increased area for activity programming and family interaction.

    The unit is staffed with nurses and aides who have expressed a special interest in working with this resident group.  The resident-staff ratio on this wing is increased and staff assigned to this unit are fairly constant.  Staff on this unit have recieved in-service on dealing with this resident group and recieve consultation on an ongoing basis.

    The Facility believes that residents who have special needs should be integrated into the general nursing home population as much as posible.  This will be accomplished based on the individual's capacity to handle such integration.

    Goals that the Special Care Unit Team works towards in this resident group include:

• Less incontinence
• Less agitated behavior leading to fewer behavior problems
• Decreased use of sedation
• Decreased use of restraints
• Wandering within a safe environment
• Less rejection and criticism from other "alert" residents
• Maximum level of functioning in ADL's
• To provide safe environment
• To provide special activities on the unit
• To provide a dining area on the unit and to increase self help in feeding
• To develop a feeling of community and feeling of acceptance among the residents on that Special Care Unit