Hi,
My husband and I are in such a dilemma about what to do for the best. My mother in law is 71 and has had an Alzheimer's diagnosis for just over a year. She lives alone, and we live a 3 hour drive away with our young family (we have two children under 3 years old). Recently she has had several incidents (one including her going missing for 20 hours- police involved etc) that we are finding very alarming and worrying. We feel so far away that we aren't able to support and care for her as much as we would like. My husband spends a lot of time on the phone to her and also arranging visits from friends and relatives. We visit when we can, and have her to stay regularly. However, he is an only child, so ultimately, we feel the total responsibility for her care lies with us.
Since the incident where she went missing, we now have a carer going into her home once a day, which gives us some peace of mind, but we live in fear that she may have another incident, and are living on tenterhooks. She gets lots of visitors, and I'm certain she wants to be in the familiarity of her own home, but is she safe? She has also lost a lot of confidence to go out, so will spend days without leaving the house.
We both feel she is not progressed enough to be in a care home (and would feel terrible forcing that decision upon her). Our dilemma is whether or not to look into moving her into our home where we can keep an eye on her and she will be around people (although we both work full time, so would still require carers to come during the day), or whether to try and keep her in her own home for as long as possible, where she has lots of variety of friends who visit her regularly, but she still spends long periods of time alone.
Does anyone have a similar situation that they can share? We know friends with relatives with Alzheimer's, but none in a situation like this, so would be really grateful for any advice or experiences to be shared.
Thanks in advance.
My husband and I are in such a dilemma about what to do for the best. My mother in law is 71 and has had an Alzheimer's diagnosis for just over a year. She lives alone, and we live a 3 hour drive away with our young family (we have two children under 3 years old). Recently she has had several incidents (one including her going missing for 20 hours- police involved etc) that we are finding very alarming and worrying. We feel so far away that we aren't able to support and care for her as much as we would like. My husband spends a lot of time on the phone to her and also arranging visits from friends and relatives. We visit when we can, and have her to stay regularly. However, he is an only child, so ultimately, we feel the total responsibility for her care lies with us.
Since the incident where she went missing, we now have a carer going into her home once a day, which gives us some peace of mind, but we live in fear that she may have another incident, and are living on tenterhooks. She gets lots of visitors, and I'm certain she wants to be in the familiarity of her own home, but is she safe? She has also lost a lot of confidence to go out, so will spend days without leaving the house.
We both feel she is not progressed enough to be in a care home (and would feel terrible forcing that decision upon her). Our dilemma is whether or not to look into moving her into our home where we can keep an eye on her and she will be around people (although we both work full time, so would still require carers to come during the day), or whether to try and keep her in her own home for as long as possible, where she has lots of variety of friends who visit her regularly, but she still spends long periods of time alone.
Does anyone have a similar situation that they can share? We know friends with relatives with Alzheimer's, but none in a situation like this, so would be really grateful for any advice or experiences to be shared.
Thanks in advance.