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What About Noise?
By Karen Staley

My mother lives in a skilled nursing facility in San Rafael, California. It was the best we could find, but still leaves so much to be desired.

Iwould like to reiterate something you are probably already aware of, but I just don't want to pass up the opportunity to tell you - One of the most difficult things about living in a skilled nursing facility is the NOISE. The reality is that a good night's sleep is the exception rather than the rule.

With two-three patients in one room, there's little opportunity for privacy, but even that is not the worst of it. The worst of it is that patients can be put into a bed next to someone who is screaming all night. I hesitate to say this because no one wants to even think of it, but the reality is that thousands of people must spend night after night like this.

First of all, there's no sensitivity of staff so that they place noisy patients in a secluded area, but, secondly, the facilities are not designed in such a way to allow them much option.

Patients with dementia are housed along side quiet people who are frail and slowly dying quietly. Half the patients with dementia shout - frequently swearing, or they moan or scream.

Across the hall from my mother is a man who moans loudly 24 hours a day. I am not exaggerating. The sound never stops. Another patient shouted, "Help! Help!" 24 hours per day so loudly that it was heard throughout the facility. Another man shouts obscenities for hours at a time.

Please have no illusions about the fact that skilled nursing facilities must deal with this sort of patient, and please, please design future facilities that will provide options to keep these patients from disturbing the peace of all the others.

Surely quiet is a factor in healing. Please find a way to provide this in skilled nursing facilities.

Further, surely there is a way to design them for more privacy. Even a cubicle is better than 3-bed rooms.

Quiet, privacy, natural light, and fresh air - Isn't there a way to provide these to everyone?