I wasn't sure which bit to post in, but my father has dementia and my mum has inadvertently become his carer.
I live about 40 mins away, my brother only 5 mins away. We both work full time, my brother does shifts.
His dementia has got quite a bit worse over the last few weeks and then yesterday he had a fall. He was taken to hospital but they said he was ok. Since being back his dementia is much worse than before he went in.
We are waiting on UTI test results from the GP (they didn't do one at the hospital which the paramedic said they would)
At the beginning of lockdown they unbelievably discharged him from the memory clinic. WEe have gone back to the GP to be re-referred.
We have also contacted the carers centre and there will be a carers assessment but not til late in August.
I'm worried about my mum who isn't coping very well with the idea of looking after my father. He is now struggling to get up from his chair or make it upstairs. He doesn't even know how to get into bed anymore. She is not strong enough to lift him if he gets any worse. She is not keen to have a stranger come in the house to help with him.
I know that Covid has thrown everything into disarray but my main question is..... What steps should we be taking? If it's not a UTI and this is him at his best now, he may need to go into a home. What do we do next? I want to help my mum as much as possible as I don't want her to feel she has to deal with it on her own but I can't be there all the time.
Any advice on next steps would be really helpful.
Sarah
I live about 40 mins away, my brother only 5 mins away. We both work full time, my brother does shifts.
His dementia has got quite a bit worse over the last few weeks and then yesterday he had a fall. He was taken to hospital but they said he was ok. Since being back his dementia is much worse than before he went in.
We are waiting on UTI test results from the GP (they didn't do one at the hospital which the paramedic said they would)
At the beginning of lockdown they unbelievably discharged him from the memory clinic. WEe have gone back to the GP to be re-referred.
We have also contacted the carers centre and there will be a carers assessment but not til late in August.
I'm worried about my mum who isn't coping very well with the idea of looking after my father. He is now struggling to get up from his chair or make it upstairs. He doesn't even know how to get into bed anymore. She is not strong enough to lift him if he gets any worse. She is not keen to have a stranger come in the house to help with him.
I know that Covid has thrown everything into disarray but my main question is..... What steps should we be taking? If it's not a UTI and this is him at his best now, he may need to go into a home. What do we do next? I want to help my mum as much as possible as I don't want her to feel she has to deal with it on her own but I can't be there all the time.
Any advice on next steps would be really helpful.
Sarah