Hi all,
Aside from supporting my brother and his wife as they cope with his Alzheimers, my Mother-on-law also suffers from dementia, although to a lesser degree.
Basically, she has the attention span and recent-memory recall of a gnat! Whilst it can be a little irritating, hubby and I (and the rest of the family, bar 'one'!) accept this - each time you tell her something it's the 'first' time she's heard about it.
The 'one' who can't seem to cope with this is my husband's aunt - Mum-in-law's sister! It's really annoying as she was herself a Nurse so you'd think she'd have more understanding.
Last Summer we moved them both up from the south coast to a care home where we live in the Midlands as there were issues with physical and mental problems between them - a 4-5 hour sojourn each way has now shrunk to a five minute car journey!
However, since they moved, Aunt has become very dominant over Mum-in-law - she's only a year older but adopts the Big Sister mantle at every opportunity!
This is causing some distress as she seems to use every occasion to pick up on Mum's failings and memory loss.
I think some of this is Aunt asserting herself as she considers all the other residents as 'batty' (her words!) and she's the only one with all her marbles! (the fact that I think there's a hole in her bag is beside the point.....!)
Mum seems to be quite happy in her own little world, even if she can't remember what we've said to her five minutes earlier but occasionally she will say something sarcastic like "How nice to have xxxx telling me what to do, I don't even have to bother thinking!"
Any ideas how we can counteract what is, to all intents and purposes, a bullying situation?
Anyone else in (or been in) this sort of situation?
Mentally I am sitting on my hands as I want to slap Aunt at times!
Regards,
Librarymaid
Aside from supporting my brother and his wife as they cope with his Alzheimers, my Mother-on-law also suffers from dementia, although to a lesser degree.
Basically, she has the attention span and recent-memory recall of a gnat! Whilst it can be a little irritating, hubby and I (and the rest of the family, bar 'one'!) accept this - each time you tell her something it's the 'first' time she's heard about it.
The 'one' who can't seem to cope with this is my husband's aunt - Mum-in-law's sister! It's really annoying as she was herself a Nurse so you'd think she'd have more understanding.
Last Summer we moved them both up from the south coast to a care home where we live in the Midlands as there were issues with physical and mental problems between them - a 4-5 hour sojourn each way has now shrunk to a five minute car journey!
However, since they moved, Aunt has become very dominant over Mum-in-law - she's only a year older but adopts the Big Sister mantle at every opportunity!
This is causing some distress as she seems to use every occasion to pick up on Mum's failings and memory loss.
I think some of this is Aunt asserting herself as she considers all the other residents as 'batty' (her words!) and she's the only one with all her marbles! (the fact that I think there's a hole in her bag is beside the point.....!)
Mum seems to be quite happy in her own little world, even if she can't remember what we've said to her five minutes earlier but occasionally she will say something sarcastic like "How nice to have xxxx telling me what to do, I don't even have to bother thinking!"
Any ideas how we can counteract what is, to all intents and purposes, a bullying situation?
Anyone else in (or been in) this sort of situation?
Mentally I am sitting on my hands as I want to slap Aunt at times!
Regards,
Librarymaid