Dementia Day Care, when to return?

[Antdad]

Hi

My family and I care for my 88yr old mum who has a number of co-morbidities as well as late stage vascular dementia. Prior to the latest omicron out break she was attending dementia day care twice a week at a local nursing home. It clearly benefits her mental health as she enjoys going and they enjoy her attending as I was asked today when she would return.

As far as I know the day centre have had no outbreaks or infections and they employ the lastest staff and patient testing protocols however I decided that when the local area (W.London) dropped below 500 per100,000 infections then at that point she would return.

The infection rate in the area is around 1000/100k and dropping but am I being over zealous? My sister said she should start attending again but we dodged a bullet when most of my family contracted covid (pre-vaccination) I was hospitalised and somehow my mother managed to avoid infection despite being surrounded by us in the same household.

I realise compared to others my problem is somewhat trivial and it is my decision but any advice would be gratefully received, TIA.

 

[northumbrian_k]

Hi @Antdad and welcome to Dementia Talking Point our friendly and supportive community. Whilst I can understand your anxiety about levels of infection in the local area, I am not sure that fixing on a particular rate as a trigger for action is all that helpful. It may be that rates in general remain higher than you would like but should that prevent your mum going back to day care? It is a balance between risk and reward, in this case the stimulus she gets from attending. If the day centre has asked her back this suggests that the management consider the risk to be relatively low. This seems to be borne out by what you know about how well the centre has managed infections to date.

Nothing is risk free, but it sounds as though the benefits to your mum outweigh the potential risks. Taking up the offer of restarting her outings seems like a good idea.

 

[Antdad]

Thankyou for your considered response, to clarify the day centre has been operating throughout the latest outbreak. They contacted me today to ask when she might return as I withdrew her from attending during the start of this outbreak rather than the day centre closing it's doors because of it.

In hindsight as there have been no outbreaks the decision appears to be overly cautious but as you say it's a case of risk and reward and I wasn't prepared to take any risk whatsoever considering her existing health conditions. However environmental conditions are changing favorably so I'll take the opportunity to discuss her return with the day centre manager asap.

 

[Shedrech]

Hello @Antdad
A warm welcome to DTP

Many families have had to make tough decisions cover these months ... you want only to look after your mum as best you can
I hope your mum enjoys being back at her day centre and continues to gain benefit from attending