Changes in mum

[Scatt76]

Mum moved in with us over 2 months ago. She has been doing reasonably well, enjoying the interaction with her young adult grandchildren and our cat.

She has become more animated especially at meal times and has a carer call in Mon-Fri lunchtime for an hour whilst me and my other half are at work. We also take her out on the weekends.

She has started to talk more about going home. Even though we have had the discussions that this is where she lives, mum talks about going home to her mum in southwick, not even her previous house she shared with my father.

Another issue is that she has started to hoard food especially bread, biscuits and cheese and toilet roll. I have found these in her bedside drawers. I am wondering if this might be because she was brought up in WWII and went through rationing. There is plenty of food available to her throughout the day and the carer makes her lunch.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[canary]

Ah, the wanting to go home @Scatt76

This is classic mid-stage dementia and actually rather sad because its not about bricks and mortar. Once people with dementia reach this stage they no longer understand that they have something wrong with them, but they realise that Something is wrong, even though they cannot put their finger on exactly what, so they think that the problem is due to where they are living and/or the people around them.

What your mum is actually asking for is to go somewhere where she felt safe, with people she recognised, from before the dementia. She wants to go there because she thinks that if she does so, then everything will be back to the way it used to be and she will leave all the confusion behind, not realising that she will simply take it all with her. Try telling her that its too hot/wet/dark/late in the day/whatever she would accept to travel today, but you can take her there tomorrow. And then distract her with tea and cake, something you want to show her in the garden, a TV program you think she will enjoy, or anything else that might engage her. Repeat this as necessary

I dont know about the food hoarding, although it could be to do with rationing. However, mum used to put all sorts of things in very strange places. When I cleared her bungalow I found stuff hidden away all over the place