Hi I’m Sarah and I’m currently caring for my nanna who is 88yrs young. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s around 4yrs ago, she’s recently been fixating on my mam saying she’s stolen her furniture. This has resulted in her calling the police twice to her home, not sleeping properly, she’s very agitated, shouting and swearing.
At first it was a wardrobe and to help calm her we agreed as a family to just go along with her thoughts and we told her that my mam had stolen them but sold them so there’s nothing more we can do. We thought that was the right thing to do, now it’s a china cabinet and we soon realised there’s gonna be no end to it so then we thought shall we tell her the truth?! Once again we’ve agreed to all be on the same narrative and tell her that her memories are all muddled up because of her memory loss but she’s not having that either and she wants her china cabinet back . She said she let her off with the wardrobes but not this .
We’re at a loss of what to do, this is now two weeks of crying, her not sleeping and it’s totally consuming her. She still lives alone, I go twice a day and she attends a day centre three times a week.
Any advice on what the best way to handle this situation is absolutely welcomed as we feel like it’s a loosing battle and either route we took hasn’t worked. Distracting her only works for a short time and she’s straight back on it. Going along with her makes her move onto the next stolen thing and telling her the truth upsets her .
At first it was a wardrobe and to help calm her we agreed as a family to just go along with her thoughts and we told her that my mam had stolen them but sold them so there’s nothing more we can do. We thought that was the right thing to do, now it’s a china cabinet and we soon realised there’s gonna be no end to it so then we thought shall we tell her the truth?! Once again we’ve agreed to all be on the same narrative and tell her that her memories are all muddled up because of her memory loss but she’s not having that either and she wants her china cabinet back . She said she let her off with the wardrobes but not this .
We’re at a loss of what to do, this is now two weeks of crying, her not sleeping and it’s totally consuming her. She still lives alone, I go twice a day and she attends a day centre three times a week.
Any advice on what the best way to handle this situation is absolutely welcomed as we feel like it’s a loosing battle and either route we took hasn’t worked. Distracting her only works for a short time and she’s straight back on it. Going along with her makes her move onto the next stolen thing and telling her the truth upsets her .
