My Mum has early onset Alzheimer's and is going to be 64 this year. She has really deteriorated over the past year. She can't do anything for herself and spends most of her time stood at the front door staring into space. She does go out 4 days a week to various dementia clubs and she enjoys that, but her home life is becoming too much to handle.
She lives alone and we have recently started with agency care workers which were supposed to make our lives easier, but it's making it more difficult as Mum resists all help from them with regards to washing/changing. I'm worried about her hygiene and wellbeing. She also sleeps with the front door unlocked most days and just leaves her front door wide open in the day while she sits on the sofa.
We have cameras in the house which we check religiously to make sure she's OK, but it's completely overwhelming and all-consuming. I come in and find towels covered in poo, she peed on the kitchen floor recently and I just feel like I can't do it anymore. She needs fulltime care, and even with a generous amount of hours awarded to us for care workers, it's still not enough if they can't do the basics like wash and dress her.
I feel like I'm just waiting for a social worker or someone from the hospital to tell us that it's time to go into a care home because obviously it's a horrible and hard decision to make and none of us wants to make it. But I feel like us keeping her at home is through our own guilt and fear, rather than what's best for her at this point.
Any advice or similar experiences would be so greatly appreciated.
She lives alone and we have recently started with agency care workers which were supposed to make our lives easier, but it's making it more difficult as Mum resists all help from them with regards to washing/changing. I'm worried about her hygiene and wellbeing. She also sleeps with the front door unlocked most days and just leaves her front door wide open in the day while she sits on the sofa.
We have cameras in the house which we check religiously to make sure she's OK, but it's completely overwhelming and all-consuming. I come in and find towels covered in poo, she peed on the kitchen floor recently and I just feel like I can't do it anymore. She needs fulltime care, and even with a generous amount of hours awarded to us for care workers, it's still not enough if they can't do the basics like wash and dress her.
I feel like I'm just waiting for a social worker or someone from the hospital to tell us that it's time to go into a care home because obviously it's a horrible and hard decision to make and none of us wants to make it. But I feel like us keeping her at home is through our own guilt and fear, rather than what's best for her at this point.
Any advice or similar experiences would be so greatly appreciated.