Hi,
My mum has been suffering from a decline in her mental state for over 2 years. She is 76 and we still cannot get a clear diagnosis on the reason for her dementia. This is frustrating and the various doctors she has seen know that she has dementia but cannot seemingly define this despite repeated CT Scans etc.
Whats worse is her quality of like. She lives on her own and has no friends. She can no longer read and struggles even to change the TV Channel. She can go out for a walk but increasingly cannot find her key and when out she can no longer understand or recognize money so struggles to buy things, just giving a shop assistant notes (or tissues or whatever she has) until its enough. This money is given to her by either myself or her brother as she cannot use an ATM or speak to the bank Clerk.
Unless one of us sees her she will see nobody. When she does her words are confused and often she just says parts of words in sentences that have no meaning.
Increasingly her mental state is deteriorating, she believes that there is a link through a gate between where she lives now and where he grew up 700 miles away. She believes that her sister leaves close by (again 700 miles away) and is having an affair with her boyfriend of 40 years ago. She believes that her old boyfriend is buying her cars ("as they have her name on them") and recently believed that he was in the house trying to kill her and also the next day that he told her she killed her sister. She will tell people in her street this whilst she is looking for the cars she has been bought.
We took her to check for bladder infection and although treated these delusions still continue. These scare her considerably.
She can no longer use an oven or hob and lives on microwavable meals and meals out - taken by my brother or I - we tried meals on wheels but she didnt eat them.There is a bunch of other stuff (shoes on wrong feet, talking to alarm clocks, constantly putting on her best clothes even though she will just be on her own).
I dont know what can be done, Social Services seem to only care if she is clean and able to get up (her cleaning has dropped off rapidly) but I am concerned about her safety regarding the delusions and am worried she will hurt herself or go looking for her sister.
She can barely communicate with anyone and is very lonely.
Both my brother and I have young families and spend time working outside of the UK, we cannot become her carer because of this. Social services and the NHS appear to be useless (either losing information or sending her leaflets that she cannot read) without any real help.
I have taken 2 weeks of work at short notice (because she thought she killed her still living sister) to try and help things, what should I be doing, we dont seem to be able to get anywhere with any organisation to help!!!! Any advice is gratefully received.
My mum has been suffering from a decline in her mental state for over 2 years. She is 76 and we still cannot get a clear diagnosis on the reason for her dementia. This is frustrating and the various doctors she has seen know that she has dementia but cannot seemingly define this despite repeated CT Scans etc.
Whats worse is her quality of like. She lives on her own and has no friends. She can no longer read and struggles even to change the TV Channel. She can go out for a walk but increasingly cannot find her key and when out she can no longer understand or recognize money so struggles to buy things, just giving a shop assistant notes (or tissues or whatever she has) until its enough. This money is given to her by either myself or her brother as she cannot use an ATM or speak to the bank Clerk.
Unless one of us sees her she will see nobody. When she does her words are confused and often she just says parts of words in sentences that have no meaning.
Increasingly her mental state is deteriorating, she believes that there is a link through a gate between where she lives now and where he grew up 700 miles away. She believes that her sister leaves close by (again 700 miles away) and is having an affair with her boyfriend of 40 years ago. She believes that her old boyfriend is buying her cars ("as they have her name on them") and recently believed that he was in the house trying to kill her and also the next day that he told her she killed her sister. She will tell people in her street this whilst she is looking for the cars she has been bought.
We took her to check for bladder infection and although treated these delusions still continue. These scare her considerably.
She can no longer use an oven or hob and lives on microwavable meals and meals out - taken by my brother or I - we tried meals on wheels but she didnt eat them.There is a bunch of other stuff (shoes on wrong feet, talking to alarm clocks, constantly putting on her best clothes even though she will just be on her own).
I dont know what can be done, Social Services seem to only care if she is clean and able to get up (her cleaning has dropped off rapidly) but I am concerned about her safety regarding the delusions and am worried she will hurt herself or go looking for her sister.
She can barely communicate with anyone and is very lonely.
Both my brother and I have young families and spend time working outside of the UK, we cannot become her carer because of this. Social services and the NHS appear to be useless (either losing information or sending her leaflets that she cannot read) without any real help.
I have taken 2 weeks of work at short notice (because she thought she killed her still living sister) to try and help things, what should I be doing, we dont seem to be able to get anywhere with any organisation to help!!!! Any advice is gratefully received.
