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My mom was very lucid one morning I was visiting. She woke me up, dressed herself had make up on and wanted me to curl her hair. I was so excited to see her so together, so of course I got up and got the iron hot. My niece is not a professional caregiver but stays and takes care of mom. She came in and scolded my mom for being up so early and said you need to go back to bed now. Mom said "jen is going to curl my hair " and I said go back to bed me and mom are fine. She continued to scold us and then said in her sweetest voice"grandma if I give you a pain pill will you go back to bed? My mom hopped out of that chair and followed heather like an addicted crack head. I was so floored by what I just saw and thought you don't give an opiate to someone who isn't in pain. I am so upset about this, how many times has she done this? My mom slept on and off the entire 2 weeks I was there. Something doesn't feel right, what do I do? I live out of state and feel so helpless.

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Where are these opiates coming from? How does niece have an unlimited supply for bribes?
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Hi, I am a Director of Nursing in home care. If the niece is not a professional caregiver, then there aren't any "rules". Caregivers that are certified under the board of nursing are NOT allowed to dish out any mediations, controlled or otherwise. That includes those considered companions that work for a company as well. Now for those, that are considered private duty (not working for a company or certified) that's pretty much up to the family or whom ever is "in charge" of their loved ones medications. If you think there might be some "funny business" going on with the pain medication, you may want to drop a tip to the patient's physician. It sounds like the niece just doesn't want to be bothered so she puts her to sleep using the pain med as a ploy. No moral compass obviously.
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When, exactly, were you staying with your mother?

The reason I ask is this. You are posting on another thread about your position that your mother needs to be placed in memory care, and your disagreement with your half-sister about this and other matters. And that makes me wonder whether you think your mother should be in residential care because you're concerned about her welfare at home; or you're looking for reasons to support your view that she should be placed, and this one seems promising.

So... If you just this weekend returned from staying with your mother and you've been worrying about that pill all the way home, that's one thing. If actually it was some time ago and this is only one example of the generality of issues that concern you, that's another.

And I'm not suggesting that the question settles it one way or another; I'm just asking you to describe what the situation is so that we can understand better what is going on.

How early was early?
What is your mother's normal routine?
Was this pain pill prescribed to your mother? In which case, what for and by whom?
Did your niece in fact give her an opioid? -i.e. was it an opioid, and was it given to her.
Did you question this (very questionable) ruse at the time?
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"My niece is not a professional caregiver but stays and takes care of mom."

Does she get paid? Is it more than she can handle?
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If the prescription is not written for your Mom, this is illegal.
It is called prescription drug diversion.
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The niece using a pain med as the carrot at the end of a stick to get your mom to do what she wants is beyond disturbing.

Was the medication prescribed to your mom?

You've already seen the niece do this once, that probably wasn't the first time. Have you discussed this with your sibling?
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I imagine that the pain pills are the mom’s prescription. What gets me is the niece saying and doing something like that in front of her mom’s sister. That makes me think the niece is ignorant about the rules of prescriptions and even more, ignorant of rules concerning Scheduled drugs. The visiting aunt needed to talk to the niece about the laws. Don’t jump to conclusions unless there were other clues that showed culpability.
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