Hi everyone, sorry in advance for the long post
My partner cares for her mum who has Alzheimer's, she's 68 and was diagnosed 3 years ago. She's been pretty stable, on Donepezil which is helping to keep her steady, and the last four MMSEs she's had the same score, give or take a point. She's been relatively independent, no need for carers as such, with my partner or I visiting each evening to give pills, cook a meal and do light cleaning.
However over the last few months, she's started to drink - a lot. It started with a beer in the evenings, progressed to beer during the day, and then starting to drink around 9.30am. We've tried substituting with non-alcoholic beer, but she doesn't like the taste and goes out to buy 'normal' beer when we're at work. When she drinks, her dementia advances to such a point that she seems much, much further along than she is. When she's sober, she can function relatively well.
We tried getting her to go to a day centre, which she enjoyed at first, but now refuses to go. She was the only dementia sufferer there and other people complained that she was repetitive, so she won't go back. She won't go to a dementia-specific day care, as "it's full of old ladies and I'm not old".
My partner has full control over the finances and has restricted her 'pocket money', buying everything she needs food and home-wise, so the extra few pounds are to stop her panicking that she has no money.
However, things have reached crisis point this evening - my partner went round after work as usual, and caught her coming out of the local shop with cans of beer tucked in her coat and up her sleeves. No purse - she'd obviously stolen them.
Took her home, and my partner checked the bin to see how much she's drunk - she's had a whole bottle of wine and 10 cans in one day. There was wine spilt on the carpet and faeces smeared on her hands and the walls. She also hit my partner and screamed obscenities at her.
We both work full time and have tried to put off having carers as long as we can, as having strangers in her flat makes her anxious - but we're now at a point where we don't know what to do. Has anyone been in the same situation? How can we address the alcohol problem?
She's in a privately rented flat in an assisted living block, but the house manager doesn't view dementia lightly, and if she continues to cause problems, they will no doubt complain to the landlord and she will face eviction.
Plan is to call social services tomorrow morning but not sure what to ask for - carers won't help the drinking situation, does she need respite? Or is there some form of rehab for dementia patients, does it even work when the brain doesn't retain information?
Thanks
My partner cares for her mum who has Alzheimer's, she's 68 and was diagnosed 3 years ago. She's been pretty stable, on Donepezil which is helping to keep her steady, and the last four MMSEs she's had the same score, give or take a point. She's been relatively independent, no need for carers as such, with my partner or I visiting each evening to give pills, cook a meal and do light cleaning.
However over the last few months, she's started to drink - a lot. It started with a beer in the evenings, progressed to beer during the day, and then starting to drink around 9.30am. We've tried substituting with non-alcoholic beer, but she doesn't like the taste and goes out to buy 'normal' beer when we're at work. When she drinks, her dementia advances to such a point that she seems much, much further along than she is. When she's sober, she can function relatively well.
We tried getting her to go to a day centre, which she enjoyed at first, but now refuses to go. She was the only dementia sufferer there and other people complained that she was repetitive, so she won't go back. She won't go to a dementia-specific day care, as "it's full of old ladies and I'm not old".
My partner has full control over the finances and has restricted her 'pocket money', buying everything she needs food and home-wise, so the extra few pounds are to stop her panicking that she has no money.
However, things have reached crisis point this evening - my partner went round after work as usual, and caught her coming out of the local shop with cans of beer tucked in her coat and up her sleeves. No purse - she'd obviously stolen them.
Took her home, and my partner checked the bin to see how much she's drunk - she's had a whole bottle of wine and 10 cans in one day. There was wine spilt on the carpet and faeces smeared on her hands and the walls. She also hit my partner and screamed obscenities at her.
We both work full time and have tried to put off having carers as long as we can, as having strangers in her flat makes her anxious - but we're now at a point where we don't know what to do. Has anyone been in the same situation? How can we address the alcohol problem?
She's in a privately rented flat in an assisted living block, but the house manager doesn't view dementia lightly, and if she continues to cause problems, they will no doubt complain to the landlord and she will face eviction.
Plan is to call social services tomorrow morning but not sure what to ask for - carers won't help the drinking situation, does she need respite? Or is there some form of rehab for dementia patients, does it even work when the brain doesn't retain information?
Thanks