Until 10 days ago my mother was living at home with 24 hour live-in care. However, for the last few weeks things were beginning to break down and she has now moved to a care home near me.
The care home is good - my mother-in-law has lived there for 2 years and we are very happy with the quality of care, although she does not have dementia. My mother is in a dedicated dementia unit within the home. Although Mum's dementia is advanced, physically she is normally very fit and active. She was in hospital immediately before the move, and for the first few days needed support from 2 people to move, but she is now physically fit again and for the last couple of days she has been back to how she was before - fully able to walk independently, without so much as a stick.
Today I was told that the staff are concerned that she is now spending all her time walking around the dementia area talking to herself, although what she says usually makes no sense to anyone else. They want to talk to the GP tomorrow about giving her medication to "calm" her, to stop the constant wandering and talking. The thing is, she has been wandering and talking like this for the last year - I thought it was a normal part of dementia and I don't see why medication is needed to stop it. She can't get out of the home as the dementia unit is locked, so she is quite safe. I know that she is very resistant to taking any medication, which is proving to be a big problem for the staff and no doubt some medication to calm her might enable her to get other medication into her - always assuming they could find a way to get her to have the calming medication in the first place. But my question is, shouldn't dementia care homes be able to accept that some people like to wander all day talking? Is it a problem that needs to be solved, or just her preferred way of being at the moment which should be respected?
The care home is good - my mother-in-law has lived there for 2 years and we are very happy with the quality of care, although she does not have dementia. My mother is in a dedicated dementia unit within the home. Although Mum's dementia is advanced, physically she is normally very fit and active. She was in hospital immediately before the move, and for the first few days needed support from 2 people to move, but she is now physically fit again and for the last couple of days she has been back to how she was before - fully able to walk independently, without so much as a stick.
Today I was told that the staff are concerned that she is now spending all her time walking around the dementia area talking to herself, although what she says usually makes no sense to anyone else. They want to talk to the GP tomorrow about giving her medication to "calm" her, to stop the constant wandering and talking. The thing is, she has been wandering and talking like this for the last year - I thought it was a normal part of dementia and I don't see why medication is needed to stop it. She can't get out of the home as the dementia unit is locked, so she is quite safe. I know that she is very resistant to taking any medication, which is proving to be a big problem for the staff and no doubt some medication to calm her might enable her to get other medication into her - always assuming they could find a way to get her to have the calming medication in the first place. But my question is, shouldn't dementia care homes be able to accept that some people like to wander all day talking? Is it a problem that needs to be solved, or just her preferred way of being at the moment which should be respected?