Wandering dementia residents

[Jackamus]

My wife was admitted into the secure dementia wing of care home. On visiting her I became aware that other residents sometimes wandered in and out of each others rooms. Sometimes personal objects may get 'borrowed' such as spectacles, ornaments, photos etc until later retrieved by a staff member. Although this was understandable some residents protested loudly about their privacy being violated including my wife. There was one incident where a resident removed some chocolate biscuits from her room only that resident was a diabetic! As it turned out it wasn't a problem but if that resident had a nut allergy or some other allergy then it may have been more serious.

I would be interested to know about the experiences of others who have been faced with this problem.

 

[jaymor]

I don’t think it is a problem as such and something that is difficult to control. Like very small children a person with dementia will assume everything they see is there to pick up. As long as everything is marked or labelled Most items will turn up and find their way back home. I can remember going to see my husband and the man he was sitting next to had a pair of spectacles on his nose, a pair in his top pocket and a pair in his hand. He was asleep in his recliner. My husband was without his glasses. His glasses were the ones in the top pocket.

Hopefully anyone with an allergy will be watched closely to make sure they pick nothing up and no one gives them anything they should not have.

In the four years my husband was in his nursing home we lost nothing, things disappeared but reappeared. We had broken watches and broken spectacles but the damage to both was done by himself.

The ‘ borrowing ‘ is something we learn to live with in care.

 

[Jackamus]

I don’t think it is a problem as such and something that is difficult to control. Like very small children a person with dementia will assume everything they see is there to pick up. As long as everything is marked or labelled Most items will turn up and find their way back home. I can remember going to see my husband and the man he was sitting next to had a pair of spectacles on his nose, a pair in his top pocket and a pair in his hand. He was asleep in his recliner. My husband was without his glasses. His glasses were the ones in the top pocket.

Hopefully anyone with an allergy will be watched closely to make sure they pick nothing up and no one gives them anything they should not have.

In the four years my husband was in his nursing home we lost nothing, things disappeared but reappeared. We had broken watches and broken spectacles but the damage to both was done by himself.

The ‘ borrowing ‘ is something we learn to live with in care.

I do not think that it possible for care home staff to monitor the movements and watch all vulnerable residents whilst they wander around - there's unlikely to be enough staff to do that. One of the things I didn't mention was an incontinent resident being 'caught-out' in someone else's room. This has happened and it is not very pleasant.

 

[canary]

Im not sure that there is a way to prevent this.
It seems to be away of life in a dementia unit. Mum was one of those forever wandering, leaving her possessions around for others to pick up and picking up other items herself. Most things are returned if they are clearly labelled. In the three years that mum was there, she only lost one tea shirt and several pairs of pants. I think she probably flushed the pants down the toilet. She nearly lost her dentures, but I fund them wrapped in tissue paper in her bin and Im sure she did that herself. Other things went missing for a while, but got returned. I suspect that it upsets relatives more than it does residents

 

[Feistywoman]

My Mum is a wanderer and collector of other peoples items, I usually go through her wardrobe and return the items which are not hers to one of the staff. So far my Mum has ‘lost’ one pair of glasses and 2 family photographs...naively I didn’t have these labelled but will turn up at some point. I don’t see a way around this in a dementia unit, difficult when someone is upset by the visits though.