Assessment questions??

[FarmerA]

Does anyone know what questions are asked at an assessment? My mother was assessed by her doctor last week and scored 8 out of 9 despite the fact that she does not know her own date of birth, where she lives or what relation I am to her. She does not watch TV, listen to the radio or read a newspaper but spends all day putting things in and out of bags. She does not know what day of the week it is or that there was a hurricane in the Philippines last week so what do they ask? She calls her cat a dog and thinks her bedroom window is a painting. She refuses to allow me to see the doctor with her. I am confused as to how she passed. Any ideas please,
Angela

 

[Noorza]

Are you sure she passed or is that what she told you? You can talk to the doctor and tell him of your concerns though the feedback they can give you may be limited due to patient confidentiality. It will help them to understand more than just what your mum is prepared to tell them.

 

[Hair Twiddler]

Hello FarmerA,
Sorry to read your post. I'm with Noorza, the 8 out of 9 test score seems pretty vague and could be your mum's way of trying to deflect your concerns.
If you are unable to talk to your mum's doctor directly perhaps you could try writing to him/her (or sending an email). May I suggest that any letter is brief, full of facts and examples of mum's behaviour which is concerning you - leave them to draw their own conclussions.
Definitely end any correspondance with a request for feed back, or at the very least an acknowledgement of your letter/email. Include your phone number in case they want to discuss any points with you.
All best wishes.

 

[FarmerA]

Thanks, will do that. Best wishes

Hello FarmerA,
Sorry to read your post. I'm with Noorza, the 8 out of 9 test score seems pretty vague and could be your mum's way of trying to deflect your concerns.
If you are unable to talk to your mum's doctor directly perhaps you could try writing to him/her (or sending an email). May I suggest that any letter is brief, full of facts and examples of mum's behaviour which is concerning you - leave them to draw their own conclussions.
Definitely end any correspondance with a request for feed back, or at the very least an acknowledgement of your letter/email. Include your phone number in case they want to discuss any points with you.
All best wishes.

 

[FarmerA]

Dear Noorza, I will try the doctor again although I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall a lot of the time. Best wishes Angela

Are you sure she passed or is that what she told you? You can talk to the doctor and tell him of your concerns though the feedback they can give you may be limited due to patient confidentiality. It will help them to understand more than just what your mum is prepared to tell them.

 

[Noorza]

The doctor's hands are tied by patient confidentiality. Mum has told the doctors that they can discuss anything with me (she may well have forgotten that now but it is on her notes) so I get the whole story. I have looked after mum's health needs without the POA for the last 20 years so she has always trusted me. Now she is distrustful at times she has forgotten that I have full access to her medical records with the GP and I shan't remind her. If you tell the doctor of what you have witnessed they can do memory tests with your mum, without even really announcing it.

From what I remember this includes asking who is the Prime Minister, to draw a clock and mark it up with the time, to remember 5 items on the doctor's desk and recall them ten minutes later, it doesn't sound as if your mum could pass these kinds of tests so I doubt the 8/9 figure adds up to be honest.

The diagnosis hasn't made any difference for us apart from helping me to understand (and be forgiving) of her mood swings. They can't medicate her due to heart and kidney failure, if you believe it is dementia then do the things that you would do if she were diagnosed.

Get informed on AD/dementia.
Get a benefits check, is she entitled to Attendance Allowance, are you entitled to Carers (diagnosis not a prerequisite with co-morbid conditions)
Call the AS and go to one of their coffee mornings to meet others who have been through the same as you - talking to others in the same situation can be hugely enlightening.
See if you can get POA so if things deteriorate you are able to manage her finances.

See what support mum needs, does she need any physical changes to her home, I would act as if the diagnosis had been made and see what practical things you can do.

 

[zeeeb]

I would put everything in your original post in a note to the Dr. They may not be able to tell you anything because of confidentiality, but they will certainly be able to take your comments and concerns into account when treating her.

Maybe she got 8 for a MMSE test, and that's out of 30?

 

[KenC]

Our consultant has stopped using the mini mental test, as she believes it does not give a true picture of my condition, and the results do not show what condition my brain or memory is in.

We use a longer form of tests which are more accurate.

Using the mini mental test I get high results everytime, even when I answer the questions wrongly.

Ken

Sent from my SM-T210 using Talking Point mobile app

 

[sistermillicent]

I don't know whether my mum had a similar test done some years ago but she also scored well which left us completely dismayed, feeling as if we were exaggerating, and coping really badly with a situation which was obviously not at all serious.
I could not even convince my own sisters that the situation was approaching breaking point with mum and dad because, not having visited in ages, they said mum's scores indicated that she was fine really. No, the memory test did not take into account mum's sudden inability to cook, the melted electric kettle, the filth all over the house, the bruises all over dad from her hitting him, the crazy places she put important stuff etc etc.

Keep a diary of things that worry you about the situation and review in a month or so - send a copy to your mum;s GP. perhaps or write a letter requesting a referral and don't let up.
I know how hard it is to "interfere" in a parent's life like this but i did it and was told it was being a good daughter, which in retrospect I know it was. You are right to try to get help before it becomes critical.

 

[jmcatpmc]

Does anyone know what questions are asked at an assessment? My mother was assessed by her doctor last week and scored 8 out of 9 despite the fact that she does not know her own date of birth, where she lives or what relation I am to her. She does not watch TV, listen to the radio or read a newspaper but spends all day putting things in and out of bags. She does not know what day of the week it is or that there was a hurricane in the Philippines last week so what do they ask? She calls her cat a dog and thinks her bedroom window is a painting. She refuses to allow me to see the doctor with her. I am confused as to how she passed. Any ideas please,
Angela[/QUOTE

Angela,
I doubt if she passed but she may well have scored 8.
In our area we GPs use the 6-CIT test and you can find it on Google and follow the link to patient.co.uk . You could try it on your mum and see how she does . A score of 8 or above indicates a likely memory problem. The questions are very simple e.g. day of week, year, month, counting backwards from 20. It only takes a few minutes. The harder part is getting your mum's permission to help her and be involved in her care. You could say you'll go in for a few minutes with her to the GP and leave when she asks you to? If all else fails you could write the GP a letter outlining your concerns and asking him or her if they would try to involve you in your mum's care, by asking your mum for permission to do so. GPs very much like to involve a person's relatives if the person may have dementia because they cannot rely on the person in front of them remembering what the plan is. On a personal note my dad scored well at first, and even though we knew/suspected he had dementia, it took a while for it to show up on the scoring tests. He still had treatment from a psychiatrist and we still had help from social services in the early stages. He went to the doctor by himself at first, but in the later stages we went with him, because he was not able to go alone, and he did not object.

 

[dottyd]

Getting your relative to drawaclock is a good one.

Mums was a face with legs.

All very shakily drawn too.

Previously she was asked who is the prime minister which she answered accurately....several years ago now.

Now she cannot remember my father and they were married about 45 years

Sad!