Day Centre
Hello, Matty
I just wanted to say that I hope you can get the help your Aunt needs. And a suggestion from me, who is working my socks off to help my own 83-year old Aunt with dementia, so you have my utmost respect and empathy.
My aunt also refused at first to even contemplate the idea of a day centre, until I suggested to all and sundry - including GP, Social Worker, Consultant, Carers etc - that we should call it "Her Club", because she had always been happy going to the local club for senior citizens at the library, and all the outings they arranged.
Once she thought she was "going to the Club" she was as happy as could be. So perhaps worth a try.
In our case, there was a "waiting list" for both transport to the club and for the club itself, so it might be worth getting her name down on the list, while you do your gradual enthusiastic encouragement. By phone and several times a week, just to "sow the seed" again and again. My aunt never had any problems either, as far as she was concerned, but she didn't have a husband to offer any assistance either to her, or to me! So what I did was draw up a funny message to her, with silly pictures of me and her and the family, with graphics to illustrate our occupations .... and a bus picking her up to take her to "The Club" and so on. All encapsulated, and stuck on her notice board in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the lounge .... and so on! The permutations were endless.
But we got there in the end, and once the waiting list allowed it, she was used to the idea of going to the club.
But I agree with Hazel: she does need a full assessment which the GP can arrange - if you can manage to speak to the GP in confidence. In our case, the GP listened to me, even though at first she said she could not discuss the detail with me because of Patient Confidentiality. But once the GP also got used to the idea that she had to talk to me if she herself wanted to give my aunt the help she so desperately needed, then the GP and I established a beautiful working relationship, whereby we would discuss all sorts of issues related to my aunt's needs and care.
Hope you manage to achieve your mission: care and assistance for your aunt and uncle.
Take care, and I would love to know how you get on with this.
KATIE